Awake and Dreaming
by Sarinati
Summary: Lily Evans' life is a living hell. Her dad is dead. She is constantly picked on. She doesn't know what to do. All that changes when a strange owl shows up. After that, Lily gets a brand new chance at life.. 18A in some places.Please R&R COMPLETE
1. A New Beginning

(A/N) Ok, I've started over. My other story (The Marauders Years) SUCKED! I HATED IT! So that's why I'm starting over. In my other story, James was the main character. Lily is the main character in this story. It's mainly through her eyes, but it will be through James' eyes too.

It takes place in first year. It's obviously Lily/James. I hope this story is better and I hope people will actually review. This first chapter contains some abuse, so if that makes you uncomfortable, then don't read my story. Rated for later chapters.

Disclaimer- J.K Rowling wrote the books. I do not own anything, nor will I ever even write a book. Except on fan fiction. Am I making any sense?

Chapter 1-A new beginning 

I hate my life. That is what Lily Evans was thinking on a chilly August morning.

"Lily, come down for breakfast!" Lily heard her mother, Abbie calling. Lily put her hand to her forehead and climbed off her bed. She walked over to the mirror in her room and stared at herself. She was glad that she wasn't horse-faced like her sister, Petunia. She had flaming red hair and deep green eyes. She was prettier than her sister, but it seemed like Petunia got more attention from boys. Lily didn't think that her sister should be worrying about guys so soon, Lily was 11 and Petunia 13. Lily heard someone coming up the stairs. Lily sat down at her desk just as the door clicked open.

"Come on Lily, we're having eggs! That's your favorite!"

"No thanks, Mom. I'm not very hungry this morning," said Lily.

"Ok then" Abbie said. She walked out of the room and shut the door. Lily was glad that she had such privacy. She was glad she had a lock on her door. She was extremely glad that Petunia was out of town. She just wished that she could not have anyone bug her for a whole day. That way, she could catch up on her thinking. _I need to get away,_ Lily thought.

------

15 minutes later, Lily was dressed and ready to go. She walked down the stairs and sneaked out of the house. She glanced at the old swinging chair on her porch, on that swing was some of the happiest memories of her life. Just swinging silently with her dad, listening to the sounds of the neighborhood. Dogs barking. Children playing. She had always loved those sounds, she didn't know why. She wished she could swing with her dad one last time. Lily felt the tears swelling in her eyes, so she walked down the front driveway and went in no particular direction. Actually, she realized that she was heading straight towards the park. When she got there, she sat down on her favorite swing, the one that her father used to push her on when she was a little girl. She heard people laughing. _Please let it not be them,_ she thought. She thought wrong.

"Why if it isn't the tomato" said Freddy Ross, the leader of the group.

"I think she looks more like an apple...hard headed too. Fits perfectly, don't you think?" said Jake Lilt, one of Freddy's many cronies. Lily looked up. About 20 people stood over her, boys and girls. They all started laughing. _I hate this, I hate my life,_ Lily found herself thinking again. A little voice at the back of her head told her to stand up for herself, but it was quickly drowned out by the many people laughing at her, as they had just dumped dirt on her head.

"Go away" she mumbled.

"What was that? Sorry, couldn't hear you!" said a girl that Lily didn't recognize.

"I said go away" Lily felt proud of herself; she had said it more louder and more forcefully than she would have expected herself to. At this, they all howled with laughter and started punching her and pulling her hair.

------

This went on for about an hour. They had all just stopped and left, probably because they had heard police sirens in the distance. Lily was thankful for that. She dragged herself up from the ground and brushed herself off. She had bruises on her arms and legs, from where people kicked and punched her. She looked at her watch. It was about noon, so she went to the nearest pizza restaurant and got a pizza for lunch. When she first walked in, some people stared at her bruises, but the quickly went back to their meals. She went into the bathrooms and sat down. She usually sat in the bathrooms at lunch in school too, since she didn't really have real friends. Except for her hamster, Lemiwinks. She had gotten him on her 7th birthday, and she loved him. When she had finished her pizza, she started to wander. She was thinking and wandering. At some point, she passed her house, but she just kept on walking.

------

Lily suddenly realized that she was standing outside the graveyard. She walked into it and made a beeline for her dad's grave. When she got there, she leaned against the gravestone entitled:

_ Mark Evans _

_A loving father and wonderful husband_

_October 13, 1923-January 26, 1958_

_May you rest in peace_

Lily started to cry. She missed her dad every day since he had died 2 years ago. He was only 35 years old, and he had died when Lily was 9 and Petunia was 11. She cried heavier. She missed her dad so much she was scared. She was scared to not have him by her side when she needed him most. The ground around her was now spotted with drops from her tears. Everything around her was a blur. She noticed a man and a woman walking hand in hand on the sidewalk. They looked at her sympathetically, but kept on walking. Lily remembered when her mom and dad walked like that, but those times were over now. She would never see her dad again, for as long as she lived. She felt small, she felt worthless. Lily laid down on the soil and fell asleep.

------

When Lily woke up, there was a police officer standing over her. It was dark out, and she was cold. When Lily finally stood up, the man wrapped her in a blanket and led her to his police car. He asked where she lived, and she answered 78 Woodlynn Ave. He started to drive. They were quiet. 30 minutes later, he pulled up to her house.

"This your house?" he asked. Lily nodded and got out. As soon as she walked inside, her mother was crying and hugging her. She told Lily to go upstairs and go to sleep, but Lily wasn't tired. Instead, she ran the water in the bathtub and got in. She soaked for ten minutes, then scrubbed her hair frantically. When she stood up, she noticed the water was a murky brown. _That water's not fit to wash in,_ she thought. She drained that bath and turned on the shower. After all the dirt was out of her hair, she dried off and got into bed. She hugged the bear that her dad got her on her 3rd birthday tightly. Lily couldn't sleep, so she flicked on her nightstand light and walked over to Lemiwinks' cage. She picked him up, but something wasn't right. Lemiwinks was usually warm, but right now, he was cold. Lily started to panic. She tried to feed him, but he didn't open his mouth like he usually did. Lily shook him, and then held him up high in the palm of her hand. He didn't like that, as he usually scratched her hand, trying to get away. He still didn't move. It took her a few minutes to realize what had happened. Her dad was dead. And now her best friend was dead. Her life had no meaning anymore. She had clinged onto that hamster for so long, and now he was gone.

------

Three hours later, Lily was still lying in bed. She had put Lemiwinks' body in a paper bag at the back of the freezer, behind her parents' wedding cake. It was something that no one would eat, but no one would throw it away either. She had started crying ten minutes ago, but was interrupted. There was a loud noise coming from somewhere, and she looked frantically around. Then she spotted it. Silhouetted against the streetlights, was what appeared to be a bird of some sort. She flicked on the light and was surprised to see an owl sitting there. But she was even more surprised to find that it had a letter clamped in its beak.

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(A/N) Okay, that was disturbing. I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. It's not going to be like that EVER again. Lily is going to get some friends, and ya.... I really hoped you liked it! Please R/R!!

Rittzi


	2. Petunia's Wrath

(A/N) Well, I hoped you liked my last chapter. After I posted it I was like, what the hell. I must have been VERY disturbed. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. I'm not about to write it all over again...I would seriously die! Well, ok, please R/R! Thanks!

Also, I forgot to mention this, but my story might be PG-15 or R in some places, but it will be mainly PG-13. And I'll try my best to make every chapter at least 1500 words! This one was 1,681 words!

One more thing... my other story only got 2 reviews! I'm really hoping that I get more than that this time!! By the way, to all my friends, I LOVE YOU ALL!

Disclaimer: God, WHY do I have to put these up every chapter? Jeez...fine, I don't own anything of J.K Rowling's...happy?

**Chapter 2- Petunia's Wrath**

Lily stood there with her mouth opening and closing like a fish, with her hand at her heart. That owl scared her! She stood there eyeing it, while the owl was eyeing her back. She soon realized that wild owls don't randomly fly to people's windows and start tapping at the window. AND it had a letter, so Lily thought it was some sort of trained carrier bird.

Reluctantly, she slowly walked over to the window and opened the latch. As soon as she did this, the owl pushed the window open, and swooped in. Lily screamed and ducked her head. When she knew the owl wasn't flying anymore, she turned around. The owl was sitting on her bed and hooting. The letter was lying on her pillow.

Lily ran to the bathroom and brought back a pail of water. She laid it on the floor and the owl gave a feeble hoot of thanks, and then drank.

Just then, her mother and sister came crashing in. Abbie looked frantically around.

"Lily, what happened? I heard a scream...and..." She had spotted the owl. "What's that!?" she shrieked. Petunia was looking pale...she had never liked birds. Lily's sister ran down the hall to her room and slammed the door shut.

"Mom, its ok...its not what it looks like...look, it brought me this!" Lily held up the letter. "It's probably black mail or something from the kids at school, but whatever. Look! It has my name on it!"

Abbie Evans' head snapped around and she took the letter from Lily's hand.

"Let me read it first, honey. I'll tell you if it's a real letter or not." Her eyes darted back and forth. When she was done, her eyes were the size of dinner plates. She dropped the letter on the ground and fainted.

Lily's eyes went wide. She rushed to her mother's side. Lily didn't want her other parent to go too.

"Mom? Mom!" Lily took the water that the owl was drinking out of and splashed it on her mother's face. Groggily, her mother sat up.

"Lily, you should take a look at this. It's very important. It involves your future, and I'm pretty sure that it's not a fake letter. Even though I've never heard of a place called Hogwarts..." She trailed away and handed Lily the letter.

"Hogwarts?" Lily said blankly. Her eyes darted over the paper and she sat down. Lily shook her head.

"This can't be happening...I mean, ME, a witch? I didn't even know there were such things as real witches and wizards.." her voice trailed away. Lily's mother picked up the letter again and quickly scanned through it.

"It looks pretty real to me, dear," Abbie answered. "Look here, it says we have to get your school supplies...at...a place called Diagon Alley?" Her face was scrunched up in confusion.

"I guess we'll just have to check it out," said Lily matter-of-factly. Her mother broke out into a happy smile.

"Oh, this is so exciting! Imagine, having a real witch in the family! Your father would have been so proud!" Abbie hugged her younger daughter and then held her at arms length. "We'll go get your stuff tomorrow!" she said, and walked out of the room.

Lily lay back on her bed and fell into an uneasy sleep.

------

Lily was soon awakened by a shadow standing over her. It took her a second to realize that it was her older sister glowering at her.

"Hey, what's up?" Lily asked cheerfully. Her sister just stared at her.

"Petunia..?"

"YOU FREAK!" she shrieked. Lily was completely taken aback.

"E-excuse me?"

"I HEARD EVERYTHING THAT YOU AND MOM WERE TALKING ABOUT!"

"That I'm a...a w-witch?" Petunia shuddered at the mention of it.

"YES!!!"

"Oh..." said Lily in a voice just above a whisper.

"YOU THINK YOUR SO SPECIAL, BUT YOUR JUST A FREAK, LIKE EVERY OTHER WITCH AND WIZARD OUT THERE! I WANT YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM ME, DON'T HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH ME!" And with that, she stormed out of the room.

Lily was scared; her sister had never burst like that before. And she had said to get out of her life, Lily still wanted to be a part of her sister's life. She didn't want to leave it forever. Lily started crying, and eventually fell back asleep.

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The next day, Lily got up to a beautiful August morning. She remembered that she was doing something today, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She clambered down the stairs for breakfast, and walked into the kitchen. Petunia was sitting at the table and her mum was humming loudly to a song playing on the radio.

When Petunia noticed Lily walk in, she scooted as far away as possible from where Lily was standing. Then Lily remembered. She was a witch!

"Good morning, Lily dear" Petunia made a gagging noise, "how would you like your eggs done?"

"Sunny side up, thanks mom," said Lily. She dared to look at her sister. She was staring angrily at Lily. Lily shuddered at Petunia's outburst last night.

"So, Lily, when do you want to get your school supplies?"

"I don't know mom, maybe leave at eleven o'clock?"

"Sounds great!" Her mother clapped her hands together.

------

At quarter to eleven, Abbie had Lily all dressed and ready to go, and was now arguing with Petunia.

"Please, pumpkin. Please come?"

"No, mother. I don't want anything to do with that...that..._freak_"

"Don't you ever call Lily a freak again, or no more boys" Abbie said sternly. Petunia groaned.

"But mo-om..."

"No buts, Petunia. You don't have to come, but don't you ever...do I make myself clear? _Ever_ call your sister a freak again!"

"Fine" said Petunia smugly. Lily knew that no matter what, Petunia would sneak out of the house anyways. To go and see Vernon Dursley, the so-called 'love of her life'. You know, the one she was going to marry. Of course, Mrs. Evans didn't know about this.

"Oh dear..." said Lily's mother as she checked her watch. "Its already 11:10! We need to get going! BYE PETUNIA DEAR!" she yelled. Before they closed the door, Lily could hear a faint, "Ya, whatever" coming from the back room. Lily just rolled her eyes and followed her mom to the car.

------

Once they were standing outside the pub called 'The Leaky Cauldron', Lily wasn't so sure about this.

"There has got to be a first for everything" her mother said to her. Lily took a deep breath in and stepped inside.

_This pub isn't so bad,_ Lily thought. It was small and warm, but it had drunks everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but here and there. All the rest of the people looked friendly enough to talk to. And that is just what Lily did.

"Excuse me..." she tapped a woman's shoulder lightly. The lady turned around.

"Yes?"

"Is this the Leaky Cauldron?"

"Yes"

"Um...how do you get into...Diagon Alley?" The woman's face brightened.

"Ah, a new student at Hogwarts, eh?" Lily nodded. "Come with me" The woman led Lily and her mother outside to a brick wall.

"You have to know the proper way to get in" The woman tapped her nose. "Watch." Lily and her mother watched amazed as the woman took out a stick and tapped a few different bricks in order. As if by magic, the bricks started moving. When they stopped, there was an archway with a busy looking street behind it. The woman was smiling brightly.

"Glad to be of service" she said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to my Firewhisky"

"Lily, dear, what's a firewhisky?" Lily shrugged. She began walking towards the crowded streets of Diagon Alley.

------

At 5:00 that evening, Lily and her mother trudged back into their house. They put her stuff in Lily's bedroom and Abbie then went and lay down on the couch with a cold cloth on her head.

"I never knew there could be so many magical people in one place!" Lily's mother said. "I actually felt a bit left out, you know, me not being magical and all..." she trailed away and fell asleep. Lily smiled at her and went to the upstairs closet.

Lily brought out the quilt that her and her mother had made together when Lily was eight. She wrapped it around herself and went back downstairs. She covered her mom up and took the cloth away from her head.

"Thanks for believing in me, mom" And she went upstairs to her room.

------

(A/N) Ok, I've just realized that Lily's dad was probably alive when Lily went to school. But this is my story, and it will go as I think it up. That doesn't make much sense, but whatever.

One of my best friends Aimée is checking this over for me, so I would like to give her a HUGE thank-you! THANK YOU AIMEE! Ahem...well that's done...

I'm listening to Predictable by Good Charlotte. If you've never heard it, you should, because it's a good song!!

Thanks! R/R, please!

Rittzi.

PS- Aimée's fan fiction name is Aimz16...but she hasn't written anything yet! WRITE SOMETHING AIMEE!!


	3. Rebecca Potter

(A/N) OMG! I have 3 reviews now! On my other story I only had 2! I feel loved...thank you the all mighty powerfulM!! You have made my day!

Chels-aka Razberrytwist-I now have reviews! I don't have to depend on you anymore! spins aroundroom happily

# of Words- 1776

Disclaimer- I want the 6th book of Harry Potter to come out! Guess what? The last word of the last book is scar! I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 3- Rebecca Potter

_I wonder what I could do..._ Lily was thinking what she could do when her magical schooling was finished. She was seriously thinking about bringing people, or animals, back to life. No, she wasn't thinking about her grandfather that died 13 years before she was born. She was mainly thinking about two people that she cared very much about.

First would be her dad, obviously, but she was still thinking about that one. She didn't want a rotting dad living in her house.

Second would be Lemiwinks, but he was never, or never will be, a person. He was a hamster. Although Lily wanted him back so badly, she didn't want him back either. He had lived his life, and it was time for him to go into the afterlife. She didn't want to take that bliss of heaven away from him. He was probably happier there than he ever was on this hellhole they call Earth.

Besides, she would make new friends at Hogwarts...wouldn't she?

What if she was the same loner she was here? What if kids beat her up, but this time with spells instead of punches? What if Professor Dumbledore got the wrong Lily Evans, and she would have to leave, while everyone at the school was laughing at her? What if she _died_ while she was there?

Lily shook her head to get these questions out of her head. Whenever she was going to do something new, she always started asking these questions to herself. Like the time she was the lead role in the school play, she started saying to herself : I'm going to screw up. What if everyone laughs at me? What if....? Blah blah blah. It turned out that she was the best little actress there was on stage that night...according to her mom.

Lily knew that there had to be at least one person that would befriend her. Her life wouldn't be a living hell there, because no one knew her. Unless one of the bullies got accepted. Lily shuddered at the thought of having to deal with one of them.

She was pondering so much in her thoughts, she didn't notice her mom standing at the doorway. Abbie knocked and Lily's head snapped up.

"God, mom, you scared me!"

"Sorry, Lily" she held up what looked like a blanket draped over something. "Ah..I got you something at Diagon Alley that you didn't know about. Here. I don't want to hold it anymore..."

Lily took the blanket with a puzzled expression on her face. Slowly, she lifted the blanket. Lily let it drop to the ground as she gave a gasp of awe.

Standing beautiful and strong, in a cage, was a tawny owl. Lily looked over at her mom and Abbie smiled.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you a million times mom!"

"I hoped you would like him" Lily nodded so hard that when she stopped, she felt slightly dizzy. She felt so happy, she didn't know where to begin. Suddenly, she remembered something.

"I have to give you a name!" Lily looked at her mom, who was still standing exactly where she was a few seconds ago. "You said he was a he, right?" Her mom nodded.

"Ok then...Fred? No, that's stupid...um...how about, Andrew? No, too human...ok, I've got one...Kantu!" Lily smiled. She had always wanted a dog, or a lemur, and she would name it Kantu. It seemed fitting for the owl though.

Kantu was brown, with beautiful orange eyes and a few white feathers on his stomach. He also had small white feathers on the tips of his wings and on the very tips of his tail. Lily though he was beautiful. She walked over to the window and opened the cage.

"Lily, no! What are you doing? He'll fly away and you'll never get to see him again!" Abbie had wide eyes and a terrified look on her face.

"Relax, mom. I just want to see if he'll come back to me" Lily watched as Kantu glided out he window, swooped down and grabbed something off the empty lot across the street, and flew back to the window sill. When he came into the light of Lily's room, both of them noticed that Kantu had a squirming mouse in his beak. Lily reached out with a shaking hand and petted his glossy feathers. She was relived that he didn't bite her or anything.

"That's gross," said Lily's mother, looking at the now limp and dead mouse hanging from Kantu's beak. "Well, I guess he's well trained. You can keep him" Lily put Kantu's cage on her desk and sat on her bed. Her mother came over and sat next to her. Lily leaned against the warm body of Abbie and closed her eyes.

Abbie ran her fingers through Lily's hair. "I hope you do well at your new school" Lily nodded. Suddenly, she remembered something.

"Mom?"

"Yes"

"I've never told you this, but at school...I got bullied a lot..." Lily's voice trailed away. She looked at her stuffed bear sitting on her pillow.

"It must have been tough on you...I mean, with your dad dead, your hamster gone, and now you've been getting bullied at school...what kind of mother am I?" She said that last sentence to the roof. Lily smiled.

"I think you're the best mom on Earth. And besides, when I come back, I can always threaten them with magic!"

"Yes you can. Now get into bed, it's almost twelve!" Abbie shooed Lily into bed. Once she was under the covers, Abbie turned off the light.

"G'night mum"

"Goodnight, Lily."

------

The next morning Lily realized with horror that tomorrow she was going to Hogwarts, and she didn't have a wand yet! She went flying down the stairs at about 50 miles an hour, and came screeching into the kitchen. Petunia dropped the armload of plates she was carrying with a scream. Pieces of glass went flying all over the floor.

"Petunia!" Her mother said sternly. "What is it Lily?"

"MOM! WE FORGOT TO GET MY WAND!" A look of horror identical to Lily's spread across her face.

"Come on! We have to get to Diagon Alley" With a whoosh Lily and her mom were in the car speeding towards the Leaky Caldron. Once inside, they got an old wizard to open the gates for them. The almost ran to a shop called Ollivanders and they almost knocked down a pile of wands. A man came from the back of the store and looked at them.

"Hello, here for some last minute shopping?" Both of them nodded.

------

An hour later Lily and her mom walked out of the store, certainly leaving a wreck behind them. It took Lily at least 8 times to get the right one. She had broken two windows, knocked down three shelves and smashed three vases. Finally, the 10 and a quarter inch, willow wand with had chosen her. Mr. Ollivander told her it would be very good for charm work. He had also said it was swishy. Lily felt happy and sad at the same time. She was going towards a new life, but she was leaving behind the people she loved. On the car ride home, Lily started asking herself the 'what if' questions again. Finally, they pulled up on their driveway, and calm was restored to the house once more.

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That night at about eleven, Lily snuck out of her room to the kitchen. She took out the paper bag that Lemiwinks was frozen in and walked out the door. She had called for a taxi and had $50.00 ready. When the taxi got to her house, she silently got in and asked to go to the graveyard. 30 minutes later, Lily got out of the car and asked for him to stay and wait for her.

Lily had never found walking in graveyards at night scary in any way. She walked over the dead people's graves with out fear. Once she got to her dad's grave, she kneeled down.

"I'm sorry, Lemiwinks, but I can't bring you back to life. I don't think you can bring the dead back to life ever, even with magic" She wiped her tears away and dug a small hole in the dirt just above where her dad was buried. Lily took the frozen figure out of the bag and dropped it into the hole. Then she covered it up. Lily took one last glance at her two best friends, and then went back to the taxi.

"How can you go in there?" asked the taxi driver as she got in.

"I've never been afraid of graveyards at night" she replied.

"Oh," he said lamely.

------

The next morning was a haze for Lily. People running this way, people running that way, packing, eating, trying to find Kantu, and finally leaving. Petunia didn't come, obviously. She was too scared.

Once they got to the train station, they went through the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, as instructed by another wizarding family. When they were on the platform, Lily's mother hugged her goodbye.

"I expect to see Kantu every other week at least" Abbie warned.

"Ok" The whistle blew. "I'd better go. Bye mom!" Lily waved and clambered on the train just as it started moving.

Luckily, Lily found a compartment to herself. She put her book beside her and looked out the window at the rolling landscape.

She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard someone come in. _Oh no, someone has come to torture me,_ she thought.

"Excuse me?" asked a voice. Lily turned around. Standing in the compartment doorway was a girl Lily's age with beautiful brown locks hanging down to her shoulders and deep brown eyes.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked, pointing to the seat across from Lily.

"Uh...no, go ahead" The girl sat down and looked at her.

"My name's Rebecca Potter, what's yours?"

"Lily Evans"

"Hi Lily, do you want to be friends?"

_Someone wants to be my friend,_ Lily thought with wonder.

------

(A/N) Yay! Lily got a friend! Well, please R/R! Thanks!


	4. The Marauders

(A/N) Just to let you know, I will update every 5 or more reviews I get. I start writing right after I post the last chapter I did, so if reviews come fast, then it might be a bit of a wait. I'm not a miracle worker...I can't post a chapter in a day!

Also, a couple of you asked if Rebecca Potter was James's twin sister or cousin. Rebecca is James's cousin.

# of Words- 1844

Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter. I wish I did, but I don't. If I did, then I would be a billionaire writer that doesn't even know what fan fiction is.

**Chapter 4- The Marauders**

_Dear Daddy,_

_I am at my new school right now. I have met a few new friends. Rebecca Potter, Katie Pilker, and Elle Benson. They are all very nice. Except for one._

_There is one other girl in my dorm. Her name is Hilary Greenweld. She complains all of the time about how stupid Gryffindors are and how about the Sorting Hat put her in the wrong house. Well, I won't complain about her!_

_My school is called Hogwarts, and it's a school for witches and wizards. Imagine that, me! A witch! I never knew._

_There are four different houses at Hogwarts. They are Sytherin, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw. I am in Gryffindor, and so are Rebecca, Katie, Elle, and Hilary, unfortuantly. Being in Gryffindor means that you are brave. Me, brave? Wow. _

_Mummy and Petunia are doing good. Lemiwinks died. I don't know if you know, but I buried him above your grave. I hope your okay with that. Mummy got me a new owl though! His name is Kantu, and it is actually normal at Hogwarts to have a pet owl! Strange, eh?_

_I miss you lots, daddy. I wish that you could've seen me go to Hogwarts. I had a feeling that you were there anyways._

_Love,_

_Lily._

Lily read through her letter. She thought it was okay, so she folded it up and walked over to the window. With one hand, she opened the window and a breeze blew in. Lily kissed the letter and threw it out. She watched as the paper soared up towards the heavens and out of sight. She let out a sigh and closed the window.

"Lily?"

"Yeah?"

"Who were you writing to?"

"My dad, Elle" Lily answered.

"But, I thought your dad was dead?" Elle asked uncertainly.

"Yes, he died 2 years ago, in a car accident" Lily's eyes swelled up. "He was killed by a drunk driver" She started letting out small sobs.

"Aw, Lily, don't cry." Elle came over and hugged her. Elle, being muggle-born like Lily, actually knew what a car and a drunk driver was. Rebecca and Katie were half blood, so they had no clue what a car even was.

"I miss him so much!"

"Shh, I know. I know how much it hurts. You're not alone." Elle's little brother was kidnapped and murdered at the age of 5. They had found Kyle Benson's body 2 months after he was reported missing. They never found his killer.

"I'm sorry, Elle. I'm sorry I had to remind you of that"

"Its okay, Lily. Now how about we get some sleep? We don't want to be late for our first class!" Lily could see Elle was trying to cheer her up. It wasn't working very well though.

"Ok. Goodnight Elle. Thanks for trying to cheer me up"

"No problem Lily. I mean, what are friends for?" She went to her bed and closed the curtains. Lily laid down on her bed and fell asleep.

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At about 2 am, Lily woke up to find that the window had been opened. She got up to close it, and saw something lying there. It was her teddy bear that her dad had given to her. Lily had forgotten it at her house. She peered out the window to see if Kantu was lurking somewhere.

Kantu was nowhere to be seen. _Could this have actually come from my dead dad?_ Lily wasn't sure. She closed the window and went back to bed; her teddy bear close at hand.

------

The next thing Lily knew, Rebecca was wakening her.

"Huh? Beck, what time is it?"

"Its 8 in the morning, and if you don't get up now, we'll be late for breakfast! C'mon, hurry up!"

Lily groggily got up and took a shower. Then she got dressed and brushed her teeth. She didn't bother making her bed. When she was ready, they all went down the stairs together.

There seemed to be some sort of commotion in the common room. When Lily got the first glance she immediately spotted four boys setting off firecrackers. One boy in their year was burned, and an older kid was yelling at them.

Lily felt Beck push past her. She was walking right up to one of the lead boys.

"James William Potter, WHAT are you doing?" she screamed at him. Lily figured the boys name was James.

James gulped. "U-uh...nothing, Becca! Just having a little fun, that's all," he grinned at the other lead boy.

"Just a little fun? Can't you see you've burned someone, and are you DEAF? Can't you hear the Prefect yelling at you?"

"Sorry, Becca! I swear, it was Sirius's idea..."

"Hey!" said the boy standing next to James. This was Sirius, Lily figured. Rebecca turned on Sirius.

"Did you have the idea to set off firecrackers?"

"N-no, ma'am! It was Remus's idea!"

Rebecca snorted. "Remus wouldn't get the idea to do this. Neither would Peter! So, that leaves YOU TWO!" She glared at both of them. "Now which one of you started it?"

Slowly, James raised his hand.

"Ah-ha! I knew it!" she stared smugly at him. "I'm warning you, James."

She walked back over to where Lily, Elle and Katie were standing.

"Lets go to breakfast, shall we?"

------

Halfway to the Great Hall, Lily decided to speak up.

"Beck, how do you know that kid?" Lily searched her memory for a name. "James?"

Rebecca snorted again. "James is my cousin. I'm the only Potter that knows how to control him. His best friend and the second worst troublemaker was standing beside him. Sirius Black. I'm surprised he wasn't sorted into Slytherin. Family is full of dark wizards. I can control him as well. The tall boy behind them, you know, the one with wavy blond hair, that ones Remus Lupin. Doesn't do much, but I can control him too. The last one is the short kid. His name is Peter Pettigrew. I can control him too." She thought for a moment. "Actually, all of the Marauders are under my control."

"The Marauders?" asked Lily with a confused face.

"That's what they call themselves. The Marauders. It Latin for 'troublemakers' or something like that...I don't know what goes on in their minds"

Breakfast was twice as good as the buffet last night. Lily wondered who cooked the food at Hogwarts. If and when Lily was rich, _I'm probably not going to be rich,_ she reminded herself, she would HAVE to hire one of the cooks. It was a necessity.

A couple minutes after they had shown up, the Marauders trudged in. James in the front, followed closely by Sirius and Peter, and Remus hanging back a bit. They sat down at the front of the table where everyone in the Great Hall could see them.

Professor McGonagall came around with timetables. Once she had handed them to Lily, Elle, Rebecca, and Katie, they started comparing.

"...got Herbology with Beck..." Elle was saying.

Lily glanced at hers.

"Hey Lily! I've got Transfiguration with you!" said Katie.

Lily had Flying Lessons first. It turned out she had that with Rebecca and Elle. Katie had her advanced Herbology, having come from a gardening sort of family.

After flying lessons, Lily had Transfiguration. She was in that with Katie, and Rebecca and Elle had to go to their Herbology.

Then it was lunch.

After lunch, all four of them would trudge down to the dungeons and take potions. Then all four of them had Charms.

------

It turned out that Lily was an awful flyer. Beck was okay, but Elle was fantastic. She was considering going out for the Quidditch team in their 2nd year. She was doing back flips and turnovers...Lily though she was amazing. As for Lily, she could barely get off the ground.

One boy named Ted Fryier broke his arm. It wasn't a pleasant sight.

------

In Transfiguration, Lily was a natural. She transfigured a shell into a button on her fourth try. Professor McGonagall said she was almost better than herself. Lily was overjoyed that she was actually good at something.

James and Sirius were in her transfiguration class too. They kept on making a fool out of themselves and getting into trouble. They got a detention, too.

------

Lily hated potions. She was awful at it and their teacher, Professor Rouge, kept on yelling at the Gryffindors. Surprisingly enough, he didn't yell at the Slytherins or Hilary, who came from a Dark Wizard family.

He especially got mad when a muggle born witch (Lily) made a better potion than Hilary. He had looked into Lily's cauldron and emptied it. He had said that there was an ingredient missing, but Lily had done it perfectly. All the Gryffindors agreed that it was perfect. Even a couple of the nicer Slytherins said that it was perfect and told Professor Rouge that he was being unfair.

This surprised Lily.

------

Lily was the best at charms. Mr.Ollivander said right, her wand was perfect for charm work.

The _Wingardem leviosa _spell was easy for Lily. Her other three friends couldn't quite grasp it.

------

That night at dinner, the Marauders were making a scene...again. They had used waterproof fire to set the Slytherin table on fire. It wasn't real fire, though. It didn't burn anything, and if you touched it, your hand would just get a warm tingle to it. The only problem was that you couldn't put it out, and it burned for hours.

All through dinner, James and Sirius were howling with laughter, and the Slytherins table burned mercilessly. Lily thought they were being stupid and immature to be acting like this.

------

Lily had found out that this was their natural behavior. For the next three days, they pulled pranks, got detentions, and fought Slytherins in the halls. Lily got the feeling one day that James was eyeing her and showing off for her, but she quickly shrugged that thought off.

It would be the death of her if she dated James William Potter.

------

(A/N) Thanks SO much for everyone who reads my story! I means so much to me! I didn't think that my story would be THAT good! :D

If you have any questions, tell me in your review! I'll answer them at the start if every chapter! (I'll answer at least 50 of them!)

Rittzi


	5. Torture

(A/N) Hey! Urgh…my term 1 exams are coming up next Tuesday…. I'm going to do AWFUL!! Haha…CRAM SESSION! Well, I won't bore you with my un-necessary long author's notes…on with the story!! This chapter _might_…wait…let me repeat myself…MIGHT be PG-15 in some places. Ok? There is abuse involved, so if that bugs you, turn back now…

Fan fiction had a 'serious bug' and I couldn't post, sorry for any inconvenience

Ok, to the reviewer The ORIGINAL Meathead, this story will be focusing on Lily's first year at Hogwarts, and then I plan to make 2 other stories. The next one will be in her 6th year, and the 3rd will be in her 7th year.

# of Words- 1675

Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling…

**Chapter 5- Torture**

Amazingly, Lily woke up before anyone else in her dorm the next morning. Quietly, she slipped into the bathroom and took a shower. She put slippers on, because if she woke Hilary up, she would be screaming for hours.

Lily didn't care anyways. Hilary only came back to the Gryffindor common room to get her books and to sleep. She skipped classes and hung out in the Slytherin common room. Someone had told her the password the very first day they came here.

With her ugly caterpillar slippers on, she tiptoed out of the dorm room and went down the stairs.

"Nice slippers," someone said. Lily jumped. Sitting in the soft squishy chair in front of the fireplace was no other than…James Potter.

Lily didn't say anything.

"Hello? Are you afraid to talk to me or something?" He had a questioning look on his face. "Come on, sit down," He patted the seat beside him.

Reluctantly, Lily sat down…as far away from _him_ as possible.

"So, what's happening?" he asked her. Lily looked at him.

James Potter had glasses and untamed hair that he always ran his hand through. Lily found it quite annoying when he did that. Naturally, he ran his hands through his hair and scooted closer to Lily.

She stood up.

"W-what? Where are you going?" he asked.

"Umm…James. I uh- I have to go somewhere" _That will work,_ she thought.

"Where?" _Oh crap…umm…breakfast? No, it's too early. I got it! Owlery!_

"I'm going to mail a letter," she said.

"Let me come with you!" he said. Lily couldn't shake him off. As much as she tried, he kept on following her. Once they got to the Owlery, Lily took out a blank piece of parchment and rolled it up.

"Kantu!" she called. Kantu came fluttering down with a small hoot of protest. "Just…fly over the Forbidden Forest and back, ok? Drop the parchment while your there," she whispered to her owl. Kantu took off.

As Lily watched him fly away, she didn't realize James staring over her shoulder. His hand slightly brushed her side. Then he left.

Lily sighed. She didn't know if she liked James or hated him. She _wanted_ to hate him, but she thought she was leaning more towards the liking side.

She mentally slapped herself. _I'm only 11. I'm too young to be thinking about boys._ She left the Owlery and waited for her friends in the Great Hall.

------

About 15 minutes later, people starting filing slowly into the Great Hall. Lily kept a close eye out for her friends.

At first there were only a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs showing up, then there were some Gryfindors, and some Slytherins, too.

At around 7:45, the Marauders trudged in. Lily thought James winked at her, but she was just being crazy.

Wasn't she?

Finally, Elle, Rebecca, and Katie came in. They spotted her and walked over. Elle sat on Lily's left and Katie on her right. Rebecca sat across from them.

"So…Lily. I heard you talking to some guy this morning. Who was it?" asked Katie as she nudged her side.

"Oh my god, Katie, its none of your business!" said Elle.

"Yes it is! I'm her friend too!"

"I know, but she might want to keep it private!"

"But maybe she doesn't! Do you want to keep it private or not Lily?" asked Katie.

"It was no one, Katie. Potter just started talked to me, and I couldn't shake him off," answered Lily, closing her eyes. When she opened them, all of her friends had looks of shock on their faces.

"My cousin was talking to you? Oh dear…" said Rebecca.

"What!? It was nothing! He just asked me what's happening!" said Lily wildly.

"Oh. My. God." Rebecca said.

"What?" Lily, Elle, and Katie said in unison.

"A Marauder asking a girl 'what's happening' means he likes that girl!" Lily looked like she was going to faint. _Please say its April Fools…please say its April Fools,_ Lily thought. No one said April Fools. _Damn,_ she thought.

"Lily?" She opened her eyes. Rebecca was smiling at her.

"Is this a joke…?" Lily asked, her voice shaking.

"No…but I could go talk to him if you want?" Lily nodded. Rebecca got up and walked up to the front of the table.

------

15 minutes later, Rebecca walked back to where Lily, Elle, and Katie were sitting.

"Well?" asked Katie.

Rebecca sighed. "Lily. He defiantly likes you, and he said to me that he thinks that you're cute"

"Oh god…" said Lily. She dared to look over to where James was sitting. When she looked over, he was staring at her.

"Ah…its almost time for Potions. We better get going," said Elle, breaking he silence surrounding them. Lily nodded and stood up.

She noticed that the Marauders stood up at almost the exact same time as she did. _I hate James Potter. I'm going to make his life a living hell. Why me? There is TONS of other girls way prettier than me in this school! Why me? _Lily thought.

"Lets get going," said Katie.

When they were outside the Great Hall, Elle, Katie, and Rebecca went to go get their books. Lily had already got hers, so she waited in the Entrance Hall for them. She didn't notice someone come up behind her.

"Isn't she ugly?" asked someone.

"She's so ugly, she burns my eyes," said someone else.

"She's in my dorm, she's so annoying!" Lily recognized that voice. It was Hilary.

Lily turned around and came face to face with a group of Slytherins. The leader was no other than…Freddy Ross.

"You actually know her, Fred?" asked a scrawny boy.

"Yeah, unfortunately," answered Freddy.

"How do you know her?" asked Hilary.

"Me and my friends back home used to beat her up." When Freddy said 'beat her up', everyone in the group started laughing.

"So, how's the Mudblood doing?" asked Freddy.

"You come from a muggle family, too, Freddy," Lily said forcefully. Freddy started laughing.

"I, unlike you, come from a pureblood family. You may have not known this. But, why would I tell _you?_"

"Please, go away. I'm waiting for my friends," said Lily.

"Whoa! Lily Evans has friends! Are they all loners like you?" Freddy asked.

"No"

"Then why the hell would they be hanging out with you?"

"Because they are my friends and I am their friends" Lily answered. Someone came up behind her and pushed her. Lily's books went flying and Lily landed on the cold, hard floor.

She tried to get up, but someone had pinned her to the ground.

"Ready? Kick!" Freddy said. Everyone started kicking her while she was pinned on the ground.

She was used to this pain, she had grown up with it. But now, there were more people joining in kicking her. The pain grew.

Lily heard people laughing. She heard someone running towards the group, and then she heard shouts of anger and someone punching someone else. Suddenly, the person holding Lily down ran away.

She felt everyone that was surrounding her run away. Soon there was no one standing around her.

Except one person with messy brown hair and deep blue eyes with glasses covering them. It was James Potter. Lily opened her eyes a little more. It hurt to open her eyes.

"Lily? Lily, are you okay?" asked James. Lily tried to get up. She got about 2 inches off the ground, and then collapsed.

"Lily!" James picked her up and ran towards the Hospital Wing.

------

The next thing Lily knew was she was in a white room in a bed. Her arm was bandaged and her foot was sore. People were standing over her. Lily squinted at them. She could make out Elle, Rebecca, and Katie. There was Professor Dumbledore, too. And the last person was James Potter. She fully opened her eyes.

She could tell Elle was, or had been, crying. Rebecca was clinging onto Katie. Professor Dumbledore had a grave look on. His eyes weren't twinkling.

And James…he looked scared. Lily rembered him picking her up and running. She had passed out soon after he had started running.

"Lily?" asked Elle.

"Yeah?" Lily answered, her voice shaking.

"Oh my God! Thank God your alive…thank God…" Elle came over and hugged her.

"Huh…? W-what's going on here?" Lily asked. She looked towards Professor Dumbledore.

"I'm afraid, Miss Evans, that Fred Ross and the others almost killed you. If it hadn't been for James, you would have died," Elle started sobbing again.

"I think I will go now," said Professor Dumbledore as he walked out of the room.

"Are you okay Lily? You took quite a beating," asked Rebecca.

"Yeah, I'm okay," answered Lily.

"Is this what your life used to be like?" asked James quietly. This was his first time talking since Lily woke up. Lily nodded.

"Ok, I'll go now," he said, and left.

"Lily? I think I'm going to go now, too. You need your rest," said Katie. "C'mon, you guys, lets go."

"Bye, Lily!" said Elle and Rebecca as they left.

"Bye" said Lily, and she fell asleep.

------

(A/N) Well! Interesting…that took me a long time to write! I hate writer's block…grr. Please R/R! Thanks!

Rittzi


	6. Immortal

(A/N) Hey! Thanks for the reviews…can you see it happening? James is starting to like Lily…hehe.

# of Words- 1523

Disclaimer- I don't own J.K. Rowlings or Harry Potter…O.o

**Chapter 6- Immortal**

_In her dream, Lily was a 5 year old girl just learning how to play chess. Her dad was teaching her. It was a Sunday afternoon, his only day off._

_Lily had learned what the basic moves were, but was still having trouble with the knight movements. Her dad told her to not worry about it. He would teach her later on._

_Lily was taken away from that Sunday afternoon and she saw through her dad's eyes. He was driving. He had a green light, so he went ahead. He didn't even see the drunk driver heading directly towards the drivers side._

_He only knew what was happening when the car was hitting him._

Lily woke with a start. She was drenched in cold sweat. The Hospital Wing was quiet, except for the quiet shuffling of papers in the back room. Lily sighed and closed her eyes again. When she opened them up, a woman handed her a potion.

Lily didn't know her name, but she looked nice. She propped Lily's pillow up and put the potion on the bedside table.

"Drink it," she ordered. "My name is Madame Josè. You're in pretty bad condition, you need to take your potion."

Lily picked up the flask and downed the liquid in two gulps. Madame Josè went over to the door and let some one in. The person started walking over to Lily's bed, but Madame Josè stopped him.

"I'm sorry, young man, but she is in no condition to be visited right now," Madame Josè was saying.

"Come on, woman! I just want to see her for 10 minutes!" The person sounded really angry.

"Fine! 10 minutes!"

"Fine!"

Lily heard some one coming over to her bed, and the curtains were thrown open to reveal…James Potter.

"What do you want now, Potter?" Lily snarled.

"I wanted to see how you were, geez. I even skipped class to come and see you!" James glared at her.

"WHAT? You _skipped_ class? God Potter, you're even more stupid than I thought you were!"

"Fine Evans! If you don't appreciate me coming here, I'll just leave!" James turned to walk away.

Even though Lily hated him, she _did_ like the company. "James, wait!" James turned around.

"Now you want my company? God, I'll never understand girls" He came and sat down on the end of her bed anyways. They were silent for 5 minutes.

"Uh…" James ran his hands through his hair. Lily eyed him.

"Why do you do that?" she asked.

"Do what?"

"Run your hands through your hair?"

"I don't know, it's a habit, ok?" James snapped.

"Fine" More silence.

"What's your mom and dads name?" James asked suddenly.

"Well, my moms name is Abbie, I have a sister named Petunia, and my dads name was Mark." James looked like he was thinking hard.

"Was? What do you mean?" he asked.

"It means he's dead," Lily said.

"Oh…sorry"

"Its okay"

"When did he die?" he asked. Lily glared at him.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Just wondering"

"He died when I was 9. He died in a car crash."

"Sorry again."

"Why don't you just stop asking me questions about my father?" Lily said.

"Okay." Again, more silence.

"You sure can take a beating" Lily looked at James. He was grinning.

"Yeah, I guess I can" she answered.

"So…you've been taking beatings like this all your life?" he asked.

"Yeah"

"You must be immortal then"

"No one is immortal, Potter"

"Yeah but you…" James was cut off because Madame Josè was dragging him off by his collar.

"It's been 20 minutes! I said 10! Now get OUT!" Madame Josè shrieked.

"I'll come by later, Lily!" James called.

"Okay" Lily answered.

------

Madame Josè gave Lily a sleeping potion, and Lily blacked out right away. Lily had no dreams, but when she woke up, Rebecca, Elle, and Katie were standing by her bed.

"Yay! Your awake!" Elle hugged her and Katie handed Lily's homework over to her.

"Thanks, Katie," said Lily.

"No problem" Katie was grinning.

"Everyone is wondering where you are, Lily" said Rebecca.

"Yeah, no one knows where you are," said Elle, who had just released Lily from a death grip hug. "Its amazing that nobody comes up here to see who is in here"

"One person came and visited me today" said Lily.

"Really? Who?" asked Katie.

"Potter," said Lily simply.

"Oh…really?" asked Rebecca.

"Yeah. He was arguing with Madame Josè so he could come and see me," said Lily.

"I…uh…have to go. Bye, Lily! Get well soon!" said Rebecca, and then she was gone. Lily had a puzzled look on her face.

"Is she going to talk to James?" she wondered aloud.

"Probably," answered Elle.

"Okay, Elle. We'd better get going too. We'll see you tomorrow, Lily! I heard from Madame Josè that she's going to let you out tomorrow!" Katie gave her a hug and left.

"Bye, Lils!" Elle hugged her too and followed Katie out. Soon after, Lily fell into an uneasy sleep.

------

A crisp October wind blew through the Hogwarts grounds the next morning. Madame Josè ordered Lily to take one more potion. It was the most disgusting potion ever, but soon after she took it, all of her unhealed cuts and bruises disappeared.

Lily got up, feeling refreshed. She slowly walked into the bathroom and got dressed and showered. When she clicked the lock open, a gust of wind hit her. It turned out Madame Josè had just opened the window, so Lily skipped over to it.

She stuck her head out and almost fell out. Lily didn't realize that the Hospital Wing was built right over a small canyon. Even so, Lily was extremely terrified of heights. She got her balance back then looked out at the gleaming lake. A tentacle stuck out, but disappeared almost as fast as it had appeared.

Lily sighed and shivered. She _was_ only wearing a pair of her favorite jeans and a hunter green tank top. She went to her bed and put on a black zip up hoodie.

"Are you going now?" asked Madame Josè impatiently. Lily had been there for almost 3 days now.

"Yes, and thank you for healing my wounds. Good bye," Lily answered. She grabbed her finished homework and hurried out.

------

When Lily entered the warm and inviting common room, she noticed quite a few things. The Marauders were in the corner, hovering over Remus. Remus looked quite pale and sick. A few moments after Lily walked in, the Marauders stood up and escorted Remus out.

As James passed her, he said quite quietly to her, "I'm glad your better." After they left, she realized that everyone that was in the common room at the time was staring at her. Lily didn't know that her mouth was hanging open and she was standing there dumbly. She quickly sat down.

Another thing she realized was that a couple of people were playing chess. She stood up and hovered over the game. She noticed that black was winning. White only had a few pawns, a bishop, and their king left. They were doing really badly.

"Err…you might want…" Lily was cut off.

"Can't you see that I'm concentrating? I don't need your advice." The boy looked angrily up at her.

"Sorry," said Lily, and she walked away. _Geez, he didn't even noticed he was in check…oh well, if he wants to be an idiot, let him be, _Lily thought.

She walked up the girl's staircase, and when she opened the door to her dorm room, she was momentarily deaf and blind. Lily hadn't even taken one step into the room when there cam a shriek and 3 people jumped on her.

"Oh brother," Lily heard Hilary say.

"Oof…okay, you guys, get off…can't…breath…" Lily pushed her friends off of her and gasped for air.

"Sorry, Lily! We're just so glad you're out of the Hospital Wing!" Katie said a bit too loudly, because some people peered up the staircase to see what was the matter.

"Well, I'm glad to be back!" said Lily, grinning widely. She got up from the floor and sat on her bed. She noticed the camera sitting on her bedside table and called her friends over.

They all sat on Lily's bed hugging each other, while Lily held up the camera and took a picture.

The moment was ruined though, because all of them suddenly heard a window smash. They all ran down to see what happened. How could a window get smashed from this high up?

There was a rock laying on the ground with a note attached to it.

_Lily Evans…you're dead!_

------

(A/N) Sorry! This was a really short chapter! Please review, anyways! I had major writers block this chapter…and I've been busy with school and everything…so yeah…um-review please!

Rittzi

PS- The reason the updating is so slow is because Aimee is sooo slow at checking over!


	7. White Lilies

(A/N) Thanks you for all the reviews! This story is a really big hit compared to my last story! I'm so glad I thought up this story in one extremely boring French class! For all of you that have been reading since I first posted, thank you for staying with me this long!!

If you think my chapters are short, just think of this! Every chapter I write is over 1500 words, so that's about 5-6 pages, with only one space in between paragraphs! That's a lot to write!

One more thing...can everyone that reads my story please review this chapter? I want to know roughly how many people read my story. It isn't that hard to sumbit a review, is it?

# of Words- 1828

Disclaimer- I don't own HP.

**Chapter 7- White Lilies**

"Checkmate," said Lily, leaning back into the squishy red chair she was sitting in. She started smirking at Elle's reaction at her winning…again.

"Damn it, Lily! That's five games in a row…let me repeat myself…FIVE TIMES!!" Elle held up her hand, and then stormed off. Everyone heard the dorm door slam shut.

Lily looked around the room. "So…who wants to challenge me on now?" Everyone backed away except Rebecca.

"Now, let me warn you Lily. I've been playing wizards chess since I was six," she said as she walked over and sat down.

"Yeah? Well, I've been playing muggle chess since I was _five_," Lily smirked. "You'll have a tough time beating me!"

"Right…c'mon, lets play!" said Rebecca. A few people came over and watched, but mostly people just kept on talking.

"White goes first, remember?" said Lily, who was black.

"I know…I'm just thinking," snapped Rebecca.

"Whoa, no need to get snappy!" Lily said protectively. She looked down at the board. Rebecca was thinking hard. People started leaving. Lily wasn't mad about this; they didn't HAVE to watch their game.

As soon as everyone left, Rebecca came out of her trance.

"Lily, are you worried about that note?" She looked concerned.

Lily waved her hand. "Nah, it was probably just some sort of prank or something. Of course I'm not worried!"

"Well, in any case, I still want you to be careful. I mean, if that note was true, then you're in real danger!"

"I know"

"Ok. Pawn to A2."

------

"Damn it, Lily! You're too good!" Rebecca stormed off. Everyone in the common room was staring at her.

Lily shrugged. "So what if I learned at an early age?" She magically put the chessboard away and repaired the pieces with the _reparo_ spell. Then she trudged up the stairs into their dorm.

Elle was lying on her bed reading a book. Katie was nowhere to be seen…she had probably broken into the Quidditch shed, and taken a broom. She was a Quidditch fanatic. Rebecca was staring at her pillow.

"Hey Lily, um…Beck just told me you beat her too," Elle had an odd look on her face.

"I used to be the best," mumbled Rebecca.

"Don't take it personally, Beck!" Lily's face broke into a grin and she went over and almost killed Rebecca by hugging her so hard. When Lily finally let go, Rebecca gasped for breath.

"Don't…do that…again…" said Rebecca, still gasping for air.

"Sorry," said Lily shrugging. She went and sat down on her bed. A couple minutes later, Hilary walked in and threw herself on her bed.

"Hey Hilary, where's your Slytherin friends? Don't you usually hang out with them…?" asked Elle, confused.

"Yeah, but they turned on me…they said it was because the stupid, ratty old hat put me in _this_ house," answered Hilary, looking sour.

"Aww, that's too bad!" said Rebecca sarcastically.

"Yeah, well they said they would kill me if I told you guys I know whose plotting to kill Lily…" Hilary's eyes went wide and she put her hand to her mouth. Elle and Rebecca were gaping. Lily just was shocked.

"Someone is _actually _plotting to kill me?" said Lily, just above a whisper. Hilary stood up, ready to run for it.

"P-please d-don't hurt m-me…" Hilary whimpered. It was too late. Elle and Rebecca had gotten up and pinned Hilary against the wall.

"Tell me who it is, and then I won't hurt you," Rebecca growled. Lily was even more shocked. Elle and Rebecca had never acted like this; even Katie had never acted like this before. Actually, if Lily thought about it, Katie had acted like this a couple times before. So had Rebecca, she had tormented James before.

"I'm not telling you," said Hilary, fighting back. Elle and Rebecca pushed her against the wall harder. "Ouch…" Hilary whimpered.

"Tell us now, and if you don't…we'll tell your Slytherin friends you squealed," Elle looked satisfied. Hilary's eyes had widened, and she was shaking her head.

"N-no…anything but that…they'll hex me!" said Hilary, scared. Lily had never seen Hilary begging a fellow Gryffindor. It was one of life's many miracles.

"Then tell us who it is!" said Rebecca, threatening her.

"Fine! A couple of my friends, Fred Ross and Jake Lilt, want her dead. They said they knew her from before Hogwarts. There, you happy?" Hilary spat in Elle's eyes. Elle fell to the ground clutching her face in pain. It must burn to have someone spit in your eyes.

Once one person was off of her, Hilary tried to escape, but Lily had jumped up and grabbed her robe.

"How are they going to kill me?" growled Lily. Hilary was obviously scared; she had always had her Slytherin buddies right behind her to back her up. She wildly flailed her arms, but it didn't work.

She didn't hit Lily, or escape. Lily tightened her grip on her.

"What are they going to do?" asked Lily. Hilary didn't answer, but bit Lily's hand instead. Lily felt a sudden rush of pain and she let go of Hilary. Rebecca lunged for her, but Hilary still escaped.

Elle crawled over to lily, who was tending her bleeding hand. It turned out that Hilary had bitten Lily down to the bone, and it was bleeding heavily.

"C'mon, lets go to the Hospital Wing to stop the bleeding," Elle offered. Rebecca helped Lily up while Elle went over to the door and peered out.

"It seems that our lovely friend Hilary has run out of the common room," she said sarcastically. When the three of them walked down the stairs, everyone was quiet. Some of them were staring at Lily's bleeding hand. Lily tried to cover it up by sticking it in her pocket, but the blood leaked through the fabric anyways.

A few people were staring at Elle's red and puffy eye. A couple of people were staring at Rebecca, but there was nothing really wrong with her. Slowly, the three of them crossed the common room and slipped out.

"I knew they hated me, but why do they want me _dead_?" asked Lily quietly to herself. The truth was, she didn't know why Freddy and Jake wanted her dead. It wouldn't do them anything. Just their favorite target for pranking and tormenting gone.

"Hey, it looks like we have a murder mystery here, except the person were investigating isn't dead yet," teased Rebecca, smiling.

Elle slapped Rebecca. "C'mon, Beck, this is no time for fooling around. There IS someone trying to kill Lily, that note was real! Lily is in real danger!" Elle glared at Rebecca and hit her again.

"Ouch…" said Rebecca, rubbing her arm. They were silent until Katie showed up, hair wind blown and nose a deep shade of red.

"Hey guys, what's up?" asked Katie.

"Someone is trying to kill Lily. We got some information from Hilary," said Rebecca. Katie eyed their wounds.

"Ew, did she give you those?" asked Katie, pointing at Lily's hand and Elle's eye. Elle and Lily nodded.

"Gross" Katie walked with them to the Hospital Wing, and Lily noticed someone in a bed. It was Remus Lupin. Lily wondered why he was here, but then she considered. He looked sick and pale. Just overall…sick.

Madame Josè came out of the office and gasped at Lily's hand and Elle's eye. Even Rebecca's arm was starting to bruise. Only Katie seemed to be unhurt. Madame Josè went into her office and brought out 3 potions. Elle, Lily, and Rebecca downed them. Katie was chanting 'chug, chug, chug…' while they were drinking them. This made Lily laugh and some of the potion sprayed out of her nose right onto Madame Josè.

Madame Josè just smiled and shooed the laughing girls out of the Hospital Wing and into the hall.

------

When they got back into their dorm room, their temporary defects had disappeared. Lily was grateful that she was a witch and one gulp of potion could cure just about anything. She had a scar though, but that didn't matter.

Lily was surprised to see a bouquet of beautiful flowers sitting on her pillow. It was only when Lily got closer to them did she notice that they were lilies.

"Hey, lilies for Lily! I wonder who they're from?" said Katie.

"Cough James cough," said Elle. Rebecca and Katie started laughing.

"Stop it you guys. I think they're beautiful!" Lily ran to get some water, and she came back with a spare caldron filled with water. She gently put the flowers in the water and put them on her bedside table.

Suddenly, Hilary burst in just as Lily was leaning down to smell them. Hilary's eyes widened with fear.

"No! Lily, don't smell them! It's a trap!" said Hilary, gasping for breath. It seemed like she had just run all the way up to Gryffindor Tower.

Lily pulled her head away from the flowers and stood up straight.

"Why can't I smell them?" she asked demandingly.

"Because…that's what…Fred and Jake…want you to do," she gasped.

"Oh, and these flowers are supposed to kill me?" asked Lily sarcastically. Hilary nodded. "And I should believe that you, of all people, want to save _my_ life?" Lily continued on. Hilary nodded again. Lily crossed her arms and sighed.

"So, I'm supposed to believe you've turned over a new leaf?" Lily asked.

"Yeah," said Hilary.

"Ok…um…so you've ditched your Slytherin friends?"

"Yeah"

"So who are you going to hang out with now?" asked Lily.

"Hopefully…you guys?" said Hilary quietly. Lily looked over to where her friends were standing. They all shrugged.

"I…I don't know, Hilary. I mean, you saved my life, but you bit me! You spat in Elle's eyes too. Maybe you should just…spend some time with yourself for a bit," said Lily.

"What? And look like a loner? No way! I'll go find some new friends," Hilary spat at them. She stood up and walked out the door, slamming it behind her.

"That girl is bloody _impossible_," stated Rebecca. Lily nodded and threw the lilies out the window.

------

(A/N) Okay, this chapter was starnge...and the next chapter is even stanger....you have been warned.

Rittzi


	8. Losing is Believing

(A/N) Thanks for the reviews last chapter! I love coming home after school every day and checking out my reviews! Just to let you know, I read every single one of them!!

Uh…this chapter is very strange…you might not want to read it…LOL! Read it if you dare…mwhaha…

# of Words- 2832!!!

Disclaimer- I don't live in England, I'm not richer than the Queen, I don't write the Harry Potter series, and I'm not J.K. Rowling. Happy?

**Chapter 8- Losing is Believing**

"Lily, you bitch, I thought you were nice!"

"God damnit, Hilary, give it a break," said Lily. Hilary just stuck her nose in the air and walked off with her new best friends, Claire and Summer. They both knew that Hilary was a popular kid so when she came up to them in the common room they automatically ditched their other friend, Meghann, and left her sitting there looking like a loner.

Claire and Summer smirked at Meghann and followed Hilary out the door. Meghann fingered her ex-friends and went back to doing her homework.

Lily felt sorry for Meghann, she had been in the position that Meghann was in now only a few months ago. Fighting to not look like a loner, trying every night not to start sobbing uncontrollably. Lily hated people like Claire and Summer, just following the popular kids just to look cool.

Hilary would ditch them eventually, and then Claire and Summer would come crawling back to Meghann, pleading for her forgiveness. Lily would probably be sick if Meghann accepted them back, after what they did to her.

Lily leaned over to Elle. "Hey, do you see what Claire and Summer are doing to Meghann? We should have dinner with her tonight or something." Elle nodded her head in approval. "C'mon, lets go," whispered Lily.

Elle and Lily walked over to Meghann and plopped down on either side of her. Meghann didn't look up but Lily guessed she thought they were Claire and Summer cause she fingered both of them.

"Uh…" started Elle, uncertainly.

Meghann looked up in horror. "Oh my God! I'm so sorry! I thought you were Claire and Summer!" She looked at them frantically. "Please don't take it personal!" she begged them.

Lily studied her looks. She had long, dark brown hair that was just a little bit wavy. Her eyes were a gray blue and Lily thought she looked very pretty.

"Actually, we came over here to ask you if you would want to have dinner with us tonight?" Meghann's face broke into a happy smile when Lily asked this.

"Are you _serious?_ You guys are the first people that have talked to me since Claire and Summer ditched me! Of course I'll have dinner with you!" She hugged Lily and Elle. "Oh, I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself! My name is Meghann Mulrony, and you are…?"

"I'm Lily Evans and this is Elle Benson. Over there is Katie Pilker and Rebecca Potter." Meghann's eyes went wide at the mention of the name 'Potter'.

"I know a Potter. Her name is Josie, but I haven't heard from her in a long, long time. Actually, I think its been 5 or 6 years," Meghann stated.

"Oh. I'll have to ask Beck or James about what happened to her. Do you want me to ask?" Lily asked Meghann. She shrugged.

"Ok I'll go ask," said Lily. She walked over to where Rebecca was sitting with Katie. "Beck?"

"Mmhm?"

"Who was Josie Potter?"

"Josie? Josie, Josie, Josie…uh…oh yeah! Josie was my 2nd cousin. She was 15 years older than me. About 5 years ago she went to Peru and didn't come back. Oh well, I don't really care. She was an embarrassment to our family. A little bit…uh…_disordered_ in the head, if you know what I mean."

"So she was mentally retarded?" Lily asked.

"No, no, no! Of course not! She just spent a lot of time in her room, wandering around town, and going to old abandoned parks. She was just a little bit alone, and it made her go mad. So she went to Peru. Probably committed suicide, I don't know."

Lily gulped. She had spent a lot of time in her room, wandering around town, and going to old abandoned parks before she came to Hogwarts and met some friends. If she wasn't a witch, would she have gone mad and committed suicide? Would she even be _alive_ right now if she didn't come to Hogwarts?

Lily didn't know.

"S-so, uh, you don't know what happened to her?"

"Nope. She just vanished. Stopped sending postcards, everything. Haven't heard from her since."

"O-oh…ok, um, thanks Beck," stuttered Lily.

"No problem," said Rebecca. Lily walked back to a very anxious Meghann.

"So? Does Rebecca know where she is?" asked Meghann excitedly.

"Meghann."

"Yeah?"

"Josie is presumed dead."

"Oh." _Poor girl,_ thought Lily. Just the look on Meghann's face was heart wrenching. Lily could see Meghann's eyes starting to swell and her shoulders shaking.

"S-she w-w-was my b-best friend…I didn't care that she was 15 years older than me, we still did everything together. When they moved out of town, we didn't see each other as often. The next time I heard of her she was in Peru studying ancient artifacts. And now she's _dead_? Oh my God…" Meghann stood up and threw her transfiguration textbook against the wall and ran up the stairs.

------

Meghann didn't show up at dinner that night. She didn't show up at breakfast the next day either. Girls in her dorm said that she was sitting on her bed, meditating and crying. They didn't exactly know why, but they said that last night they heard her talking in her sleep. Once she even screamed.

_Maybe she's going insane, like Josie did,_ thought Lily. She quickly shook that thought out. Meghann was a normal girl; she was just going through the grief of loss. Lily remembered that empty space in the very center of you that made you cry and scream.

Meghann was just going through that phase. She would get over it in a few days. Lily remembered she got over her dad's death in 2 weeks. Sometimes it takes people years and years to get over a loss. Lily once read of this one woman who loved her dog so much, that when it died after a full life of 14 years, she was overcome by grief. She didn't eat or anything, and a couple of weeks later she died.

It said in the woman's will to be buried by her dog. Lily thought she was a crazy woman. Ok, she loved the dog, but she didn't have to kill herself. Dogs die after 10-15 years. You have to know that when you buy a dog.

Lily just hoped that wouldn't happen to Meghann.

------

After a few days, teachers started to get worried at Meghann's absence. Professor Dumbledore asked the girls in her dorm what her condition was like almost every morning. The girls always answered 'she is doing pretty bad'.

Lily was getting worried now. She had been in her dorm for almost a week now. She wasn't eating, and Lily didn't want to be responsible for Meghann's death.

Tonight, Lily would go up to her dorm and talk to her.

------

After the last class that day, Lily spotted Hilary with Clair and Summer. She walked straight towards them, and Hilary walked away. Summer quickly followed her, and Claire attempted to, but Lily had a firm hold of her collar.

"Let…me go!" shouted Claire, attempting to free herself.

"You, are coming with me tonight. We're going to go and talk to your old friend Meghann." Claire spun around and spat in her face. Luckily, Lily was ready for this, and she had a sort of clear shield covering her face. The spit just rolled off the shield and onto the ground.

"I don't want to," snarled Claire. Lily shrugged.

"Fine, but let me tell you, Hilary is going to ditch you eventually, and if Meghann is dead when she does, you and Summer won't have anyplace to go." Lily knew she was starting to convince her.

Claire sighed. "Uh, can you keep a secret?"

"Sure."

"Ok…I hate Hilary! She is really mean to me and Summer, but Summer doesn't care. I want to be friends with Meghann again. I miss being carefree like her. I want to go back, so I'll come with you tonight." Claire attempted a smile.

"Ok, I'll meet you by the fireplace tonight at 9, ok?"

"Ok."

------

That night at nine o'clock sharp, Lily slipped out of her dorm while Rebecca, Katie and Elle were in the bathroom, washing their faces. Lily didn't know where Hilary was.

When Lily got to the bottom of the stairs, she realized that Claire was sitting there. She obviously noticed that Lily came in, because she stood up and nodded.

"I asked Summer if she wanted to come, but she said she didn't want anything to do with Meghann. She said that she was going out somewhere with Hilary. So I guess its just you and me?"

"Yeah, I guess," said Lily. They started going up the stairs to Meghann and Claire's dorm. When they opened the door and came in, a girl named Hallie poked her head out.

"Hey Claire. Who's this?" asked Hallie, nodding at Lily.

"This is Lily. We've come to talk to Meghann," answered Claire.

"Oh, okay. She's in the last bed on the left," said Hallie.

"I know where she sleeps, Hallie, I share a dorm room with her. Geez, I'm not stupid," said Claire rather stupidly. Lily thought she sounded like a childish 6-year-old schoolgirl.

They walked over to Meghann's bed and opened up the curtains. Lily gasped at what she saw.

Meghann was pale, skinny, and sick. She was too lazy to get up and go to the bathroom, so her crap was surrounding her. Lily felt pity for her.

"M-meghann? Are you awake?" asked Lily, her voice shaking. _Please don't be dead,_ thought Lily.

Meghann's eyes slowly opened. "Who's there? Who's talking?" she asked. Then she spotted Lily and started crying.

"Oh, Meghann…" said Lily, and she went over and hugged her, careful not to touch the crap.

"O-oh, Lily, I m-miss her s-s-so m-much…" sobbed Meghann.

"C'mon, Meg. You have to get up sometime, or else your going to die. How about you get up and eat something?" asked Lily hopefully.

Meghann shook her pale head. "No, I want to die. My life has no meaning anymore. If I didn't know that Josie died, then maybe I would actually _want_ to live. But right now I don't. Now please leave." The last sentence she said wasn't a question, it was a command. Lily left slowly and silently. She noticed that Meghann had gone back to sleep, and the other girls in the dorm closed the curtain to cover up the smell.

It was like closing the door to Meghann's life.

------

Meghann's funeral was two weeks later. Almost everyone that went to Hogwarts attended it. Even the Slytherins went. Lily couldn't help but feeling sort of responsible for Meghann's death. In fact, it was Lily who asked Rebecca who Josie Potter was and it was Lily who told Josie the bad news.

Lily felt that empty hole in the center of her growing. The saddest thing was that three days after Meghann died, a letter addressed to her arrived. It said that Meghann's parents had died in an airplane crash.

That was he biggest blow of all. Meghann didn't have any parents, but they would see each other in heaven. Right?

There was one good thing about all this. Meghann was in a better place now, and she would be able to see Josie and her parents again. Maybe Lily would go and see them in heaven when she died.

------

December 14, exactly a month after Meghann died. It was early in the morning, about 6:30 am. Lily got up and took a shower. When she got out she changed into a black shirt, black pants, and her black Hogwarts robes.

She was mourning for Meghann.

Only a few people noticed that Lily was wearing all black. Lily saw a couple other people wearing black, including Claire and Summer, who had ditched Hilary earlier that month. Hilary was wandering around aimlessly now, since she didn't have any friends.

She was awful at Charms. Lily didn't pay attention at all. When they got a surprise quiz about what they did that day, Lily failed miserably. Even Potter got better than her.

She couldn't believe her grades. They were slipping rapidly since Meghann died. Lily was on the verge of breaking down. She couldn't take this anymore. She needed to get some sleep, probably.

------

After her last class that day, Potions, she quickly went up to her dorm, leaving her friends behind. She passed Freddy and Jake in the hall, but they seemed scared of her now. Lily was utterly relieved that she didn't have to worry about getting attacked now.

When she got to the portrait of the Fat Lady, she said the password and went up to her bed. She dumped her stuff in her suitcase. She would organize them later.

Lily took off her robe and climbed into bed. After a few minutes, she fell into a deep sleep.

------

Lily felt someone shaking her shoulder.

"Geoff, mum. Five more minutes," Lily remembered saying. The person still shook her shoulder and Lily opened her eyes. It was dark out, and Lily had to squint to see who was towering over her.

"Here, Lily. You missed dinner, so we brought you up some food. I hope you like roast beef," said Katie. Lily nodded and sat up. She pretty much inhaled the food. She was starving.

Katie nudged her again.

"What?" asked Lily, her mouth full.

"You got a letter, Lily. I don't think its good news," said Katie.

"Oh, no! Not _more_ bad news? I think I've had enough bad news to last a lifetime!" Lily said as she rolled her eyes and grabbed the letter.

Sure enough, it was addressed to Lily, from Professor Dumbledore. Why did they always bring bad news in a letter? Couldn't they just come and tell them in person?

_Whatever,_ thought Lily. She tore the letter open and a sheet of parchment and a picture fell out. _Hmm, a picture?_ She thought. She grabbed the letter first.

_Dear Miss Evans,_

_Your mother would have been writing this, but she thought it would be better if I wrote it. She thought that her writing would have not been readable, because her hands would be shaking too much._

_I have some good news and some bad news. I'm so sorry to tell you this, but your house and everything in it is gone forever. A couple of kids put gas around your house and set a torch to it. I am sorry, but your house has been lost in the flames. Everything inside of it is gone, too._

_To hopefully cheer you up, your mother, sister, and owl escaped with only minor injuries. It is a miracle, since the house burned to the ground in a total of 43 seconds. They got out very quickly._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Professor Dumbledore_

_Headmaster_

Lilt took the picture out. When she saw it, her eyes filled up with tears. It was a picture of her mother and sister standing together in front of their burned down house. Kantu was circling overhead. It was a muggle picture, so the people weren't moving.

Everything was lost. All of her childhood toys were lost. All of her dad's old stuff that he once treasured was lost. Nothing could replace those things. Nothing.

Lily didn't even know if they had house insurance. If they didn't, then her mother and sister would have to live in a caring center or something, or even worse, they would have to live on the streets.

But neighbors and friends would take them in, wouldn't they? Lily was about to ask this question out loud, but her lips were glued shut. Instead, Lily picked up her book, un-glued her lips, and screamed. She threw the book at the wall and it hit it with a thud.

Lily stood up, but her knees crumpled underneath her. She just sat on the ground and sobbed her heart out.

------

(A/N) Okay this chapter was the longest I've ever written. Consider it a Christmas present because it took me almost a week to finish it. So yeah, about the Meghann thing. Yeah it is part of the plot. Some of you might not like it that she came in on this chapter and died in this chapter too. Sorry if it bugs you. And to my BFF Meghann, sorry that you had to die LOL. I hope you're not mad at me!

Rittzi


	9. Winter Wonderland

(A/N) Hey! Again! Thanks for the reviews. This story is probably going to be in-between 17 and 30 chapters. Hopefully. Yeah. I hope. Well on with the story!

As I go on with my story, the chapters will probably get longer. So yeah…hope you're happy!

# of Words- 2885

Disclaimer- I don't own HP and I don't own the song 'Winter Wonderland'.

Chapter 9- Winter Wonderland

December 23rd. Lily had gotten over Meghann's death. She didn't starve herself to death, luckily. Her grades were improving rapidly. Over half the people in Hogwarts didn't even know who Meghann was. They had all forgotten.

It was two days till Christmas, and Lily didn't have any presents to give out. She wasn't going home for Christmas because her mom and sister were staying in a refugee home. It turned out that the insurance company just stole their money. Lily's mom was planning to sue, but she didn't even have enough money for that. All they could afford was food and a place to stay.

The Great Hall was beautiful. It had twelve huge trees in it, and every single one was decorated with candles, jewels, ornaments, and lights. Lily's favorite tree was a simple fur tree with strings of ivy here and there on it. It had candles and a star on top. It reminded her of home.

It was a Wednesday, about 9:40 in the morning. Everyone didn't have classes because a week ago, Professor Dumbledore announced that classes were cancelled until January 17th. Everyone had stood up on the table and clapped and whistled as loud as they could. Lily smiled as she remembered that.

"Hey, Lily, want to learn how to handle a broom?" asked Katie, looking into the dorm.

"Sure," said Lily as she got off her bed. She stood up too fast, because after a few seconds, she started feeling dizzy. She shook the feeling away and followed Katie out of the dorm.

Lily stared at the wonderfully decorated halls as they walked towards the pitch.

"And you got to be careful, or else you'll slide off the end…" Katie was saying. Lily wasn't listening. She just kept on walking towards the Entrance Hall.

As soon as they stepped outside, Lily was hit with a blast of cold air. She could see her breath puffing out in front of her, and she was shivering. Lily's eyes started watering up from the cold. Lily had never felt this cold before.

"Here…" said Katie, and she pointed her wand at Lily.

"Hey, don't point that thing at me…" said Lily seriously.

"_Ferneo_," said Katie. After she said it, Lily felt really warm inside. Katie said the charm to herself and they started walking.

"Where did you get that spell? I've never heard of it," said Lily.

"I snuck into McGonagall's office a few weeks ago. It was just laying on her desk, so I swiped it." She shrugged. "I've been using ever since. It's really good when its cold out like today."

Lily nodded. She noticed a few people on the Quidditch Pitch as they approached it. They seemed to be having a snowball fight. _So childish,_ Lily thought. They snuck around the stands to where the school kept the brooms. Katie used _alorhomora_ to unlock it. They grabbed the sturdiest looking brooms they could find and walked towards the pitch.

Lily suddenly felt something cold and wet hit her cheek. She gasped and touched her face. _Someone_ had been crazy enough to hit Lily Evans with a snowball. By reflexes, Lily scooped up some snow, rolled it into a messy ball and whipped it at the first person she saw. Satisfied, Lily turned to Katie.

"How do you mount this thing?" she asked.

"Wow, you can sure throw a snowball hard," said Katie, amazed. Lily turned around because she heard someone running towards them.

"Hey, where are you going?" asked Elle with a broom in her hand. Rebecca came running up to them too.

"Hi, Katie, my friend, can you teach us to fly?" asked Rebecca.

"Oh boy, I've got my work cut out for me," sighed Katie. She shrugged. "Oh well."

------

Even though the heating spell was on, Lily's eyes still stung from the cold as she was rushing through the air. Lily looked behind her, Elle was going very slowly and she was wobbling. Lily turned around and looked ahead again. Her eyes went wide, the 50 foot tall goalpost was only about 5 feet away from her.

Lily swerved to the right. Her broom went flying, and she fell 15 feet into a pile of snow. When Lily hit, snow went down her back and the warmth spell wore off. Lily sat up and went rigid. If there was one thing in this world that she hated the most, was having snow go down her back.

Lily tumbled down the small hill and landed face first. She quickly jumped up and started jumping around, attempting to get the snow out from under her wet and cold robes. _What was that spell again?_ Lily thought.

"Lily, are you okay?" asked Katie as she came running up to her.

"Need…heating…spell," said Lily, who was still jumping around.

"Oh, right…what was it again?" Katie had an evil look on her face.

"Just say the goddamn spell!" said Lily through clenched teeth.

"Fine, fine! You don't have to be bitchy about it!" Katie said as she shrugged. She said the spell, finally.

"Thank you!" Lily snapped. She was really pissed at Katie right now.

"Uh, I'm gonna go now…" said Rebecca and Elle in unison, and they took off. Lily glared at Katie momentarily, and then followed Elle and Rebecca.

------

Lily was flying about 30 feet off the ground, flying very slowly. Rebecca and Elle were speeding around the pitch, obviously having a race. Katie was flying some 20 feet higher than Lily, but at about the same speed. Lily was still pissed at her…Katie obviously saw that she hated getting snow down her back, and she just took even longer!

Lily slowly went into a leisurely dive. She didn't get enough time to pull up though, because something hard hit her right side. Lily and the thing tumbled to the ground and landed in a pile.

Lily groaned and slowly opened her eyes. _Why does everything bad happen to me?_ Lily wondered to herself. Truthfully, Lily didn't know why everything seemed to happen to her. It was some sort of curse or something. Before Hogwarts, Lily didn't believe in ghosts and curses and all that. But now…well, she did.

"Are you okay?" said someone above her. Lily squinted against the falling snow to see who it was. _Okay, I really do have a curse. EVERYTHING bad happens to me!_ Lily thought.

"I'm fine, Potter. Get off of me," she snapped at him.

"Fine…" James said as he got up and brushed himself off. Lily stood up too and swept the snow off her robes.

"I really shouldn't be out here…I still have to get everyones present…" Lily mumbled to herself.

"You still have presents to get? Do you know where you're going to get them at?" asked James.

"No, James, if I knew where I was getting them, wouldn't I have gotten them already?"

"Uh…if you want…I'll take you to Hogsmeade?" asked James. _Oh God, he's asking me on dates now…oh well, better amuse him…_ thought Lily.

"Sure, James, I'll go with you!" said Lily sarcastically.

"Really? Okay, meet me after dinner and we'll…" James was cut off.

"Hold up! You obviously _are_ stupid, couldn't you tell I was being sarcastic? And besides, I wouldn't want to go on a date with…_you!_" said Lily.

James looked confused. "Huh? Lily, what are you talking about? I'm not asking you on a date, I just want you to have your Christmas shopping done!"

"Oh…okay where do we meet again?" asked Lily, who had gone completely red.

"Okay, after dinner just meet in the Entrance Hall…" James started.

------

5 minutes later, James was still going on about what they would do that night. Lily's legs were getting sore from standing there listening to him.

"The we can go to…"

"C'mon James, you're so slow! I'll meet you after dinner in the Entrance Hall, okay? Bye!" said Lily as she ran inside, leaving a very confused James standing in the middle of the Quidditch Pitch.

When Lily stepped inside the Entrance Hall, she shivered and then gradually got warmer. The heating spell had worn off about 10 minutes ago, and Katie went in 15 minutes ago. Lily freezed her ass off to half listen to James! _I've gone mad!_ Lily told herself.

Lily slowly, but steadily, climbed the stairs up to Gryffindor Tower. As she climbed, she got warmer, and soon, she could feel her hands again. When she got to the Fat Lady, she said the password and walked inside.

The first thing that Lily did was sit right in front of the fire and warm up. She melted all the frozen ice off of her hair, then went and took a hot shower.

When Lily came out of the bathroom, Elle was sitting on her bed and Katie and Rebecca were having an arm wrestle. Lily shook her head and smiled when Katie slammed Rebecca's arm down on the table with a thud. Katie stood up and took a couple of victory laps around the dorm room. When Katie sat down again, Rebecca was nursing her arm.

"Play again?" asked Katie with a smirk.

"NO!" shouted Rebecca with wide eyes and she dived into her bed. Katie looked at Elle and Lily with a questioning look. They both shook their heads with wide eyes.

"Aw, you guys are no fun!" said Katie. She put on her puppy dog look. "Please?"

"NO!" shouted Elle and Lily in unison. Katie shrugged.

"Whatever. See you guys at dinner." She walked out of the dorm and into the common room. Elle, Lily and Rebecca burst out laughing when they heard almost everyone downstairs scream 'NO!'.

Lily ran into the bathroom.

------

At dinner that night, someone ACTUALLY challenged Katie at an arm wrestle. Lily thought it was a 4th year or something, but he was losing. _Wow, Katie is really strong!_ Thought Lily as Katie slammed his arm down.

As the boy walked away with a bruised arm, the food appeared. Lily only grabbed a little bit…she very extremely nervous about tonight. Being alone with James? How bad could it get?

Lily also didn't want to get caught. She knew James's record…he had had so many detentions so far. Lily on the other hand…she had a clean record, and if they got caught, then her record wouldn't be perfect anymore. _Oh well, no one is perfect!_ Lily reminded herself very nervously.

When Lily finished her food, she slowly got up and walked into the Entrance Hall, and leaned against the wall casually. She was one of the last people out.

Lily didn't know where James was…he was probably getting money or something. Lily was smart enough to bring money along with her, so James wouldn't have to wait for her. But now _she_ was waiting for _him_. Something about that didn't sound right.

Finally, James came running down the stairs, cheeks red and something clasped in his hand, and something draped over his shoulder.

"Okay, it isn't done yet, but I thought we could use it. It only has a few things on it, including the entrance to Hogsmeade" James looked at the thing in horror. "Quick, under here!" He threw a cloak over her and his head. Lily looked around with wide eyes.

They weren't allowed to be out this late, and when Lily saw a teacher coming, she almost screamed. Luckily, she didn't, because James covered her mouth with his hand.

"Be quiet!" he whispered urgently to her. Lily nodded. As soon as the teacher passed and was gone, James started to climb the stairs. Lily followed obediently, not knowing where they were going.

When they got to the 3rd floor, James made his way to a statue, and said a spell. To Lily's surprise, the statue opened up to reveal a staircase leading down into the school. James started to go down the stairs, but Lily just stood at the top.

"C'mon!" James said. Lily reluctantly followed him down. It felt like they were going down forever in the dark, because the statue closed above them. Finally, they reached the bottom.

"_Lumos_," said James and Lily at the same time. Both of their wands lit up to reveal a dark and damp hallway. It seemed like they were a million miles under the school by now.

After about 15 minutes walking in silence, there was yet _another_ staircase. Lily groaned, and started climbing. Couldn't they rest for just a _minute_? Lily wasn't as fit as James. Lily stopped and sat down on the stairs stubbornly. It took James a few moments to realize that Lily wasn't following him anymore. He turned around with a questioning look on his face.

"Why'd you stop? Are you tired?"

"Duh, if I wasn't tired I would still be climbing these stairs." Lily rolled her eyes. James sat next to her. They sat there for almost 15 minutes, and then James stood up.

"C'mon, lets go. My legs are getting cramped." He helped Lily up, and they kept on climbing. A thin strip of light appeared soon enough. James motioned to her to keep quiet, and Lily nodded. James walked up to the light and peered out.

"Get under here and don't make a noise!" he whispered urgently to her. Lily got underneath the cloak, and they stepped out the trapdoor.

Quietly, they walked slowly towards the exit. As soon as they got outside, they ducked into an empty alley and took off the cloak.

"Why didn't the guy at the counter see us?" asked Lily, looking at the bundle in James's arms.

"Its an invisibility cloak. C'mon, we better get moving before someone sees us." James motioned for her to follow her.

They sat behind a dumpster for a long time. They were waiting for everyone who worked at Hogsmeade to leave so they could get into the stores.

After the last light in the last store went out, James and Lily stood up. Lily's knees buckled from the cramp in her left knee. She landed hard on the ground and slowly started stretching her leg. James waited patiently for her to finish.

When Lily was done stretching, she experimented standing up. She stumbled a little bit, and James caught her. Lily looked into his eyes. For a split second, Lily had the sudden urge to kiss him. She quickly shook that thought away and pulled away from him.

"C'mon, lets go." Lily said quietly.

As they walked silently through the empty streets of Hogsmeade, it started to snow.

Quietly, Lily started to sing one of her favorite Christmas songs. "Sleigh bells ring, are you listening? In the lane, snow is glistening, a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight, walking in a winter wonderland…"

The whole time she was singing silently to herself, she knew James was listening. The funny thing was, that Lily didn't feel the least bit nervous singing around James. Usually she got really nervous singing even in front of her family.

When Lily finished the song, James started humming it.

------

"Are you absolutely_ sure_ its okay to jus take the stuff?" asked an extremely nervous Lily, carrying a few bundles full of goods from Hogsmeade. They were walking back to Hogwarts through the underground passage.

"Nah, they won't care. Seriously! Don't freak out!"

"Okay…if you're sure…"

A flood of light ahead of them meant that they were really close to the exit. When Lily stepped out of the hole, she breathed the fresh air. Lily stepped forward; at least she tried to step forward. She heard James grunting behind her, so Lily figured he was stuck too. She turned and faced him.

"Mistletoe…" James said, pointing towards the roof. Sure enough, there was mistletoe hanging innocently there.

"Damn it! Does this mean we can't move until we kiss?" said a horrified Lily.

"Yeah I guess."

"Ew! I'm not going to kiss you! EVER!" said Lily, and she tried to run. Unfortunately, she couldn't.

"Well if you want to get out of this mess, you have to kiss me!" said James. Lily looked at him. He had a grin on his face. He puckered up and Lily slapped him.

"I'm not kissing you!"

"Why?"

Lily ignored his question. "I guess we're stuck here for the rest of the night then." Calmly, Lily hid the gifts in a bag and sat down.

"You know what Lily? I've been trying so hard to be nice to you, and all you do is be bitchy back! I'm through with this. You're going to feel the full wrath of a Marauder now."

Lily could tell James was seething. She ignored him and went to sleep.

------

(A/N) Ohh! James is pissed now! Okay, here is the deal. The faster and the more reviews I get, the faster I update. But don't put a review in twice please! Thanks!

-Rittzi


	10. Misfortunes

(A/N) Okay, sorry it took me so long to post this chapter…but I've been busy…yeah, they'll believe that! LOL I'm kidding! But I have been kind of busy…and my brain is SO full of stuff I can't think…aka…writer's block. Okay here you go.

This chapter might suck due to writer's block…yeah…

# of Words-2027

Disclaimer: I don't own HP.

**Chapter 10- Misfortunes**

Lily woke up due to James yelling for someone to come and help. Lily listened to him scream help over and over again, but she didn't care. James would lose his voice soon enough. And besides, he had gotten all mad at her last night, just because she, just like him, was 11 years old, and wasn't into kissing guys yet.

_James shouldn't be such a pervert. I hate him! He is such a man-whore. I can't believe Beck has put up with him all these years. I feel sorry for her!_ Lily thought to herself.

_I can't believe I wanted to kiss him._

James started to cough. He cleared his throat and tried to yell again, but all that came out was a weak croak.

"You could probably _help_ a bit!" he croaked angrily.

"Nah, I'd rather not. Besides, I enjoy seeing you suffer. It's free entertainment," Lily said matter-of-factly.

James laughed. "_You_ of all people shouldn't be making snide remarks about me. I'll just make your life a living hell."

"So? I've been through hell and back. You won't be able to top what kids in my neighborhood did to me. I'll be able to stand up to you. I've learned from recent experiences."

"But you haven't seen the wrath of a Marauder yet. And I will be able to top those kids. I promise." He sneered at her.

Lily gulped. If he was going to top the kids back home, he must have something planned up in his mind. Was he going to beat her up like before? What was he going to do to her?

"What do you have planned?" Lily shouted out. Her eyes widened. "Oops…did I say that out loud?"

James laughed again. "You'll have to wait and find out."

Lily shook her head and rolled her eyes. She leaned back against the cold, brick wall and watched James yell again.

------

_This is the worst Christmas Eve day I've ever been through!_ Lily thought angrily to herself. James had given up shouting about half an hour ago, and he was now slumped against the wall with his arms crossed. He was mumbling angrily to himself.

Lily groaned and stood up. She needed to walk around; her butt was getting really sore.

"HELP!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs. James looked up, startled from his trance.

"_Thank you!_ That's all I wanted you to do in the first place!" he croaked menacingly.

They both looked down the hall. Someone was running towards them. Frantically, Lily hid the stolen gifts behind the statue, then sat down and crossed her arms. She put on her best stubborn look and waited.

Rebecca turned the corner and looked wildly at them.

"Lily? James? Huh?" Rebecca said as she panted. She utterly confused.

"Please help!" James said frantically.

"What are you doing here?" Both Lily and James automatically pointed to the roof. Rebecca looked up and laughed.

"Oh my God! I ran here cause I heard Lily scream help! I thought she was in trouble, not stuck under mistletoe!"

"You _are_ going to help us right?" said Lily.

"God, all you have to do is kiss! Its not that hard is it?" Rebecca wondered.

"YES!" shouted James and Lily at the same time.

"Fine…" Rebecca held up her wand to say the counter-curse, but then she hesitated. "Please, I need to laugh." She put on her puppy dog look.

Lily groaned and leaned in towards James's lips.

She could tell James hated this as much as she did. They quickly put their lips together and they pulled back almost as quickly. Lily stumbled backwards and realized she could move again.

"Oh thank God," she said, putting her hand to her forehead.

"Uh, I'm going to go find Sirius…" James was looking dazed and distracted, and then he ran off.

"How can you stand him?" Lily asked.

Rebecca shrugged. "It is a miracle."

------

James came bursting into the common room and looked wildly around for Sirius. He wasn't in there, so James checked in their dorm room.

"Damn it!" James mumbled to himself. He ran out of the tower all the way down to the kitchens. He scratched the pear and the portrait swung open. James stumbled inside.

Sure enough, Sirius was sitting on a stool, almost not visible because house elves were surrounding him with food.

"Hey, wutcha doing?" Sirius swung around and looked at him.

"James! Hey want some grub? They got a lot here!" James noticed that he was surrounded by house elves, just like Sirus.

"Geroff of me," James said as he pushed the squealing elves aside and walked over to Sirius. He pulled up a stool and leaned in towards Sirus.

"What?" said Sirius.

"Last night, I was stuck under mistletoe with Lily."

"You lucky piece of shit! Did you get to kiss her?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Why the unfortunately? I thought you liked Lily?" Sirius asked, confused.

"Yeah…I did yesterday. It turns out that Lily doesn't like me whatsoever. I was just wasting my time with her."

"Oh…so uh, got anyone else on your mind?" asked Sirius.

"No, not yet, but I'll look out for girls, don't you worry."

"Okay…you hungry? There's a lot of food here!"

"Sure, I haven't eaten since yesterday. Pass the beef."

-----

"Beck?"

"Mmhmn?"

"What does James usually do to his victims?" Lily needed to know. Now.

"Oh the usual…pulls pranks with Sirius. Peter and Remus stay out of it though." Rebecca looked at Lily. "Why? Did he threaten you?"

Lily nodded solemnly. "He said he would show me the full wrath of a Marauder. Does that mean anything?"

"Maybe. He might not prank you because you're a Gryffindor and a girl, but if you a Slytherin guy, he would go after you in a second."

"Well, thank God I'm not a guy then!"

"Yeah, well notice the key word _might_. He _might_ not prank you. Did he sound serious?"

"Yeah."

"Well then, sister, I wish you luck."

------

Listening to the soft noises of people sleeping, Lily sat up from her sleep. She quietly tiptoed out of the room and down the stairs.

There still was a small fire going in the big fireplace. Lily sat down on her favorite couch and curled up in a ball.

She watched the flames dance around for a while, and then drifted off to sleep herself.

------

"Detention!" called a voice behind James and Sirius. They both groaned and turned around.

"But professor, it's the Winter break!" complained James.

Sirius nodded in agreement. "School isn't even in, you can't give us detention on our only time off!"

"Well, I can if you're wandering the halls at midnight!" Professor McGonagall sounded mad. "You will go straight to bed, and I will see you tomorrow at 1pm, by the Quidditch Pitch. 1pm sharp" She warned them, very briskly and clearly.

"Whatever," they both muttered monotonously.

"Now get to bed!" She screamed at them, probably waking up half of Hogwarts in the process.

James and Sirius ran into their common room. They sat on the couch panting. Suddenly, Sirius nudged James.

"Look, over there! Its Lily, your ex-love!"

"Cut that out!"

Sirius had an evil glint in his eye. He stood up and walked over to Lily.

"What are you doing!" snapped a mortified James.

"Just having some harmless fun," answered Sirius. He leaned over Lily and whispered something in her ear.

"James, go away," mumbled Lily. James's head snapped up when he heard his name.

Sirius curled up next to Lily and hugged her. James was surprised to see Lily smile. He was even more surprised to see Lily hug Sirius back. James was starting to get envious now.

"Oh James, you're such a sweetie!" said Lily, still half asleep. _Sweetie?_ Thought James. The something hit him. _Maybe she actually did like me…_

Suddenly, Lily pushed Sirius off the couch. He landed with a hard thump. The noise obviously startled Lily awake. She looked around with wide eyes, and then saw Sirius on the floor. Her eyes turned from wondering to rage in a split second.

"Oh my effing God, Sirius! I was ASLEEP!"

"Half asleep?" he said quietly.

"STILL! You shouldn't try and take advantage of me! I bet Potter here dared you to." Lily glared at James.

James was shocked. She did hate him. James still liked Lily, but he had to do this. He had to. He pretended to be angry with Lily.

"Oh. My. God. Lily, don't you believe me? I had nothing to do with this. Just ask Sirius." James looked sternly at Sirius. "I had nothing to do with this, right?" He forced out through gritted teeth.

Sirius, who was enjoying the free entertainment, shook his head.

"James told me to, Lilykins. Don't blame me for accepting a harmless dare!"

James was shocked. How could his supposed best friend, Sirius, betray him like that? Betray him to the wrath of Lily Evans? James knew one thing though. Lily wasn't some sissy, prissy girl like some other girls. She was tough, and she knew how to defend herself.

James winced as Lily turned on him. She was staring a thousand daggers into him. James prepared himself for the worst, but nothing happened to him. Lily just shot one last glare at him, and then stomped into her dorm.

James looked at Sirius, who was whimpering in the corner. He laughed, and then James attacked him. They wrestled for a bit, and then went up to bed. They would have wrestled longer, but tomorrow was Christmas.

------

The next morning, Lily looked out the window to find all of the Hogwarts grounds covered in a fresh blanket of white snow. Happily, Lily skipped into the bathroom and took a shower.

The warm water was refreshing. While in the shower, she heard Elle call her name. Lily slipped out of the bathroom, got dressed, and then went downstairs. Elle was sitting on a couch, with a pile of wrapped gifts surrounding her.

"There's your pile over there, Lily," said Elle, pointing at the other couch. Lily looked over to the chair Elle was pointing at.

"Oh my God, I'm loved!" Lily squealed as she walked over to her pile. There were so many presents sitting there, they were literally falling off the chair.

Lily grabbed a small package wrapped in Christmas tree paper. She tore it open and opened the box…

The next thing Lily knew, she was covered in green, sticky slime. The common room was a disgusting shade of lime green. Lily could only think of one person who would do this.

"Potter!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. James came down the stairs very slowly. When he came into Lily sight, she lunged for him. In a matter of seconds, she had him pinned to the ground.

"Don't you _dare_ prank me again, or else you'll feel the full wrath of a Evans." Lily was seething. She slapped his head, and then went upstairs.

_I just had a shower, too!_

-----

At breakfast that morning, Professor Dumbledore announced that there was going to be a hayride that afternoon. He advised to go with your "honey".

_Oh, this is just peachy perfect!_ Lily thought sourly to herself. Who would she go with!?

"There will also be a dance tonight!" said Professor Dumbledore.

_This is the worst Christmas ever._

------

(A/N) Sorry if this is a short chapter. The next one might be short too, so yeah. Just to let you know. Sorry!!

Merry Christmakkah! _To all you OC lovers! Especially Seth lovers like myself!_

Merry Christmas! _To all of you who don't watch the OC! I feel sorry for you!_

Happy Hanukkah!_ To all of you who light the Menorah!_

-Rittzi


	11. Tonight is the Night

(A/N) Hey! I hope everyone got what they wanted for Christmas! I know I sure did, and I think this was one of my favorite Christmases. Is that even a word? Cool, I made up a word ) Well on with the chapter. And this chapter might be short, I wanted to update ASAP! I'm also going to play a little…uh…cards. I might lose some money lol!!

# of Words- 2659

Disclaimer: I don't own anything to do with JK Rowling!!

**Chapter 11- Tonight is the Night**

"Still thinking, Lily?"

"Yeah." Answered Lily.

"So…I guess you want to be alone?" she asked.

"Yeah." Lily looked up into the hazel brown eyes of Rebecca.

"I…uh…just wanted to tell you that I'm going to the dance and hayride with Remus. I don't think Peter is even going, and Sirius is going with one of his Hufflepuff admirers."

"Crap. Who am I going to go with? I'll look like a loner if I have no one to go with!" Lily was getting frustrated. She was thinking through all the guys that had seemed half interested in her…which also meant the guys who had just said hi to her. Lily had lost track of who she was at when Rebecca interrupted her.

_I am NOT going with Potter. I don't care if he is Beck's cousin, and I wouldn't care if he were the last guy to go with to this stupid hayride. Same goes for the dance. I'd rather go alone!_

She wouldn't dare go with a Slytherin, even if a few of them were kind of nice. She just wouldn't allow herself to stoop so low. She wasn't going to become a low life like them.

"Got any ideas?" asked Lily desperately.

"Well," said Rebecca thoughtfully, "there _is_ that nice Slytherin boy…"

"NO!" snapped Lily. "No Slytherins! I was thinking Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Maybe Hufflepuff, but not my favorite choice."

Rebecca laughed. "It sounds like your shopping for jewelry! Not looking for a guy to go to a dance with you!"

"Shut up and leave me alone!" spat Lily venomously. Rebecca left without another word.

_Ok, so that cancels out Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Damn it, that leaves James! I hope he doesn't want to go with me. I would die of embarrassment. Well, I actually wouldn't _die_. Just…I'll just be really embarrassed, that's all._

Lily sat in the squishy, red chair, embraced in her thoughts until someone came up to her. Lily thought it was Rebecca again, but it wasn't, and Lily was glad she didn't attack him with her words.

When she heard him approach, Lily sighed and glared at her hands. He stopped right in front of her, and she closed her eyes. Her head snapped up when he shifted.

"Oh…hi," she said softly.

"Uh, hey. I was wondering if you would uh…want to go to the hayride with me…?"

Lily looked into his auburn eyes. His jaw muscle twitched, and he was fiddling with his hands. It took Lily a few moments to realize who he was.

His name was Tyler Bowie. He was in the same year as Lily, and he was a very skilled at Potions. He had auburn eyes and dark, wavy hair. He was very well built, and he was a little bit taller than Lily. He was a normally outgoing person, but right now he seemed shy.

"Sure. I'll go to the hayride with you!" Tyler's face brightened.

"Do you want to go to the dance with me too, then?" he asked hopefully.

"Okay. I'll see you tonight, then." Lily watched as he walked away, and up the stairs with a cocky stride.

_Thank God he asked me before Potter asked me,_ thought Lily. At that exact moment, James strode into the common room. He looked around, then spotted Lily and walked over to her.

"Lily, do…" He was cut short.

"No!" said Lily as she held up a hand. "I'm not going to the hayride with you!"

James looked disappointed. "Okay," he said as he sulked away. Lily watched him as he went up to a girl named Gwen Hymen. She had always been one of James's admirers.

Lily eyed him carefully as he leaned against the wall and said something. Lily could not hear him. Gwen flushed and looked at her hands. She said something in an undertone, and then smiled and reached up and hugged him tightly.

Lily rolled her eyes and picked up a random book. The title was 'Love in a Dangerous Time'. Lily threw the book back down on the table and picked up another one. It looked interesting enough, so she started to read it.

After reading the first few chapters, Lily looked up from the book. Her eyes had a glazed expression. She absent-mindedly pulled out some candy her mother had gotten her and started to chew on it. Two girls that Lily knew were playing chess nearby, but Lily had no inclination to join them.

She noticed that it was only a couple hours until she had to go out with Tyler. _Crap, I spent most of my Christmas sitting in this chair, and I have only 2 hours before probably the worst night of my life. Great._

Lily dragged herself up from the chair and climbed the stairs to her dorm. When she stepped inside, a powerful smell of perfume reached her nose.

"Phew, don't you think you have enough on?" Lily covered her nose. She had never really liked perfume.

"Aw, c'mon, Lily! Its not that bad, is it?" asked Katie with a puzzled expression. Katie normally wore tight jeans and a loose t-shirt, but she looked totally different now.

Katie was wearing a t-shirt that showed her stomach, and a black, zip up sweater overtop. Her belly button was pierced, and Lily wasn't surprised. Katie was the kind of girl to do those kinds of things. That's what she thought was _fun_. She was wearing a pair of black shorts with a pair of navy blue sweatpants over them. Lily thought she looked really cute.

Elle was wearing a pair of light blue jeans, and a brown tank top. She was pulling on a baggy, gray sweater overtop. When she turned around, Lily could see a symbol of a black bear on the back.

Rebecca looked beautiful. She was wearing a pair of jeans that she rolled up to her knees. She had black boots on. Her right wrist was covered in metal bracelets. Her shirt was red and it went down over her waist.

"C'mon, Lily! You need to get dressed too!" exclaimed Elle as she pulled Lily over to her bed.

"But, I can…" said Lily, trying to get away.

"Nuh uh! We're going to dress you tonight!"

"But…"

------

Lily stood in front of the full-length mirror an hour later. She was wearing a black, leather skirt that came just above her knees. Her shirt was long sleeved and yellow. Two tassels came down on her left side at the very bottom. Her hair was put up in a loose bun.

"Ooh, you look stunning!" said Katie in awe.

"Yeah, I guess its okay…" Lily turned around to examine the back.

Lily heard the excited screams of girls coming from the other dorm rooms. She then heard people pounding down the stairs, and Lily reluctantly followed them.

The common room was full. Girls were searching for their dates, and guys who didn't really want to go were trying to avoid the girls that were searching for them. Lily spotted Tyler standing by the exit, and she slowly made her way over to him. When Tyler spotted her, he grinned.

"Are you ready to go?" he asked. Lily nodded in response and they went out of the common room.

Once they were in the hall, Lily breathed in the fresh air. Even though they were still inside, the air here was refreshing after the stuffiness of the common room. Tyler led her down the stairs, and through the many halls.

Lily gasped when they got outside. It wasn't because she was wearing a skirt and it was below zero, but because there were at least 100 carts filled with hay, but the strangest thing was the horses.

They looked almost dead. You could see their skeletons; it looked like they were underfed. Lily wondered why Hogwarts wouldn't feed them. It seemed cruel.

Lily pointed to the nearest horse. "Don't the horses look weird?" Tyler was confused.

"Uh, Lily. There aren't any horses. Magic pulls the carts." He looked at her strangely.

"But…there's a horse right in front of us!" Lily pointed to the horse that was standing not even three feet away.

"Lily, you're scaring me," said Tyler, who was looking at her strangely still. Lily gave a frustrated sigh, and then followed Tyler to go sit in a cart. They hay was itchy, and bugs were crawling around in it. "Ew…" Lily muttered under her breath.

About 10 minutes later, more and more people began showing up. To Lily's dismay, James and Gwen sat right across from Lily and Tyler. James momentarily glared at Tyler, and then hugged Gwen by surprise. He was obviously making Lily jealous that she wasn't going with him. It wasn't working.

Rebecca and Remus came and sat in the same wagon as them, too. Rebecca smiled at Lily, and Remus was looking dazed. He came out of his trance a few moments later, though. He immediately started talking to James, and ignored Rebecca. She gave a frustrated sigh and crossed her arms.

The carts started moving about 15 minutes later. Teachers came around with blankets and hot chocolate. Lily grabbed her blanket and hot chocolate in a second. She was freezing cold!

The girl next to her was looking at the front of the wagon with a confused expression on her face. Lily guessed she could see the strange horses as well. Lily nudged her.

"Can you see them too?" she asked. The girl nodded.

"I've heard of them. They're called Thestrals. You can only see them if you've seen someone die." She had a pained look on her face. "I'm Chrissie Benson. What's your name?"

"Lily Evans."

"Who did you see die?" asked Chrissie "I saw my cat die. I didn't know animals counted. Oh well!"

"Uh…I saw my grandpa die." Lily answered, not wanting to go on with this conversation. "Have fun at the dance!" Then Lily turned away.

The thestrals galloped around the lake. When they reached the front doors to Hogwarts, Lily grabbed Tyler by the collar and practically dragged him in. The truth was, Lily was freezing cold. She had scorched her throat and tongue drinking the hot chocolate in only a couple of gulps, and the blanket was thin, and it still let the cold air in.

She welcomed the warmth of the castle. In a few seconds, she stopped shivering and she followed Tyler into the Great Hall.

------

Half an hour later, the whole school was in the Great Hall, dancing to the music. Lily had gone up to dance with Tyler once, and then went and sat down and drank butterbeer. She was watching her date dance with Chrissie. Couldn't he keep her company?

She scanned the dance floor some more. Rebecca was dancing silently with Remus, while Katie was off to the side telling jokes to people. Elle was dancing with James. Lily felt sorry for her.

Finally, the song ended, and people broke up with their partners and went to talk to their friends. Tyler came over to her and sat beside her.

"Boy, is Chrissie a good dancer. She must have went to some sort of dancing school," he said.

Lily looked at him. "What, and I'm not a good dancer? What's wrong with my dancing?"

"Uh…nothing, its just…well, you stepped on my feet a lot, and Chrissie didn't so…" Lily snorted.

"Why didn't you ask Chrissie then?" asked Lily. Tyler was looking at her with wide eyes.

"Uh…cause I thought you were prettier?" he answered quietly. Lily rolled her eyes.

"So you just care about girls looks. Well, Chrissie isn't that pretty, I know that. But she's stupid. She is in my Charms class, and quite frankly, she's not very good at it." Lily hoped she proved her point.

She didn't, because Tyler got up and went to dance with Chrissie _again_. Lily crossed her arms and rolled her eyes once more, then got up and left the dance without another word.

While she was walking up the stairs, she heard the thudding of feet behind her. She turned around to see Tyler and James running towards her.

"Lily! Why did you leave?" asked Tyler, gasping for breath.

"You maybe spent 5 minutes with me at that dance, Tyler! I was bored out of my mind, and you wouldn't even ask me to dance with you!"

James looked bewildered. "You asked her to the dance, and you refuse to dance with her?"

"Yeah!" Tyler answered smugly.

"Why not?" James demanded. Lily was afraid that this argument would get violent. She didn't want to be in between it all.

Tyler glared at James. "I think Chrissie is nicer, prettier, smarter, and more down-to-earth than Lily. I think Lily is ugly and stupid. I'm sorry I even asked her to come to this stupid thing. I should've asked Chrissie."

Lily was utterly shocked. No one had ever called her ugly or stupid before. Maybe once or twice she was called not attractive or not as smart as other people, but she was never called ugly or stupid.

Tyler made a move towards Lily, but was stopped by James.

"Don't touch her," he growled. Tyler ducked under his outstretched arm and lunged at Lily. She shrieked, and then started to gag. Tyler had her in an arm hold around the neck, and was slowly lifting Lily off the ground.

Lily was clawing at Tyler's arm to let her go, but he kept a firm grip on her neck. James grabbed Tyler and pulled him off of Lily. She fell to the ground, gasping. Meanwhile, Tyler and James were rolling down the steps, toppling over each other.

When they finally reached the bottom, James started punching Tyler in the face. Both of them had bloody noses, and Tyler's was getting worse. Lily ran down and pulled James off of him.

"Lily! Let me go!" he said.

"No! No, James, you have to take him to the Hospital Wing!" James turned and looked at her tear-stained face and nodded. He lifted Tyler's shoulders off the ground, and Lily grabbed his feet.

------

An hour later, Lily and James were sitting in the hall just outside the Hospital. Lily was crying silently; she knew this night would turn out like this. She wished James would just get out of her life, but she had to admit, that if James hadn't attacked Tyler, Lily would have probably chocked to death.

Lily felt the tender spot on her neck. She cringed when she touched it too hard. Lily knew that it was going to turn into a bruise in the morning. She was glad that classes didn't start for another week.

Then she got an idea. Lily got the perfect idea to get rid of James for good. Lily stood up and left James sitting in the hallway all by himself.

James Potter would finally leave Lily alone.

------

(A/N) Okay, chapter done! I ended it in a weird place, sorry! I hope everyone had a good New Years! And remember, the more reviews I get, and the faster I get them, the faster I post the next chapter!

Oh yeah, if you haven't read my one-shot fic yet, why don't you? It is kind of weird, but yeah…it's just weird. You don't have to read it. I'm not expecting a lot of reviews for it.

-Rittzi


	12. If Looks Could Kill

(A/N) WOW! I never thought this story would be good enough to get 50 reviews! Over 50, actually. Thank you, to all of my readers! You made this author's note possible!

I think Lily and James will start to be half decent to each other soon. Hopefully. In my next story, the sequel to this one, they will start to like each other more and more. Well, in the next story, James will probably just try harder to win Lily's heart. I can put more stuff about them kissing or something, because they're in their 6th year. They are in their 1st year right now. Remember that when you don't see anything of them kissing or anything. They are 11.

I just realized that I haven't updated forever! I'm so sorry! I hope I haven't lost any of my readers because of my brain…I've been thinking so much over the past month. And you may have realized that I have started a new story. I was focusing on that for a week or two, but now I'm just going to do both of the stories. And this story will probably be about 17 chapters long. So yeah. There you go, my apology.

Disclaimer- I do not own Harry Potter and I'm not making any profit off of this story.

**Chapter 12- If Looks Could Kill**

As Lily walked away from James in the hall, her mind was racing. She thought she actually floated all the way to Gryffindor Tower, she was so happy. She had never smiled this big anytime before in her life.

What seemed like in a matter of minutes, Lily was standing in front of her trunk. She tore through it, looking for the ugliest clothes she could find. She finally decided on a highlighter blue shirt, and a pair of ripped, baggy jeans. She threw them on, and smirked at her image in the mirror. The neon blue clashed horribly with her hair. The jeans made her look like a hobo.

_And now for makeup_, she thought deviously to herself.

Lily walked over to where Katie's makeup was lying. She looked at all of it carefully, and then looked at the door. When she figured no one was going to come, she grabbed the nearest piece of makeup.

_Eyeliner_, she read quietly to herself. _Well, I guess it's supposed to line your eyes._

Lily had never worn or put on makeup by herself before. But instead of discouraging her, it made her plan more workable. She put on the eyeliner really sloppy, and then looked at her image.

She had the black liner on really messy. She hadn't really done it on _purpose_. Lily's hand was shaking the whole time she was putting it on. She attempted to straighten out the curved line, but managed to jab the pencil into her eyes instead. Her eye started to water, and that just added to the effect.

"Perfect!" she said to herself. Lily knew she was over-reacting just a little bit, but she had to get James off her back. She knew her popularity would drop extremely, like dropping off a 200-foot cliff because she was dressing and looked this way. But Lily didn't care about those things. She walked out of the dorm room and down the flight of stairs backed up by the adrenaline rush she was having. It was only when the common room came into sight did it finally wear out.

As soon as the first person could see her, everyone stopped talking and looked at her. A second later, they all started whispering and pointing at her. Lily had half the mind to run back up the stairs and never come out of her bed again, but she was determined to come face to face with James.

Slowly, she started walking through the mob of people. A couple ofpeople tried to trip her, and quite a few actually hissed at her. Literally _hissed_, like a cat would.

_There goes my drop down the cliff_, Lily thought bitterly to herself. She scowled at anyone who got in her way after that. Someone hissed at her again, and she turned around and boxed him in the stomach. He fell over on to the ground, winded. A couple of his friends bent over him to see if he was okay.

Lily slowly pushed her way through the crowd, until she came to the seat that James normally occupied. He wasn't there, so Lily scanned the area around the fire.

Her eyes came to rest on the darkest corner in the room. Lily's eyes widened as she saw the scene in front of her. Her eyes started to water, and she ran as fast as she could back up into her bed. The sounds of people laughing followed her up the stairs, and the unforgettable noise rang in her head as she cried on her pillow.

The vision of James and Hilary making out was imprinted in her brain. No matter what she tried, the scene would not leave her. Her worst enemy, and her supposed 'secret lover', had both made her look like a fool. She was going to be considered the low-life of the school for the rest of her schooling days.

And it was all James's fault.

Actually, Lily had felt a knot form in her stomach, as she stood there dazed in the common room. Lily suddenly realized that it wasn't embarassment, but _jealousy_. She was actually jealous of Hilary.

Through her tears, she uttered a small laugh. She hated James. She _despised_ him. He was her absolute worst enemy.

_But is he?_ She thought to herself. They were nothing alike. She was smart, he was reckless. She was herself, he acted like a jock. Or was it the other way around?

Lily didn't know. She fell into an uneasy slumber, still thinking about these things. She had a lot on her mind lately.

* * *

(A/N) Okay that chapter was short, mainly because that was all I had in my head for right now. I hope you still like this story, even though it hasn't been updated for a long time! I will update way sooner, I promise!

Ciao,

Love from Ritz.


	13. Trust and Hate

(A/N) Wow! Even though I hadn't updated in…how long? I don't even know. But I got 5 reviews in the first couple of days it was posted! Yay!

This chapter will be through Lily's eyes, alright? It's pretty much her inside feelings about James and Hilary. They storyline will still be going on. And I'll try to make this chapter a bit longer!

Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 13- Trust and Hate**

I moaned as the sun hit my face through a crack in the curtain. I looked at my watch. 11 o'clock. Good thing it was Saturday. I sat up in my bed, and I almost started crying. I'm glad I didn't though, because I think someone just walked into the room.

Last night was probably the worst day of my life. I had made a huge social blunder, and got my heart broken as well. Double whammy. Great.

Slowly, I peered out of my secluded bed. Who ever had come in had left already. It was probably the house elves, because all the beds were made and all of people's stuff piled on top of them. I climbed out of my four poster, and made my bed.

I dragged myself over to the bathroom, and took a shower. The hot water against my cold body felt good. As I was putting shampoo in my hair, the soap fell from the top of the shower. I accidentally stepped on it, and I went plummeting to the hard marble floor.

I sat like that for almost an hour, I think. I was curled up in the corner, with the water on just above me. All I could feel was the soft mist falling on my face.

"Why does it hurt so much?" I asked silently to myself. I had never liked James…well not until yesterday. He was still my sworn enemy, and so was Hilary. But deep down, in the pit of my stomach, I knew I fancied him.

The water had turned cold. The hot water was probably shut off now. I turned the water off, and stood up. I was chilled to the bone. The cold mist had felt like freezing rain.

Slowly, I dried myself off and got dressed. I noticed a bruise on my left hip. Probably from the soap. Bloody soap.

When I had combed out my long red hair, I checked my watch again. 12:37. Lunch was just starting. I decided to sneak into the kitchens later, instead of facing my peers.

At 1:00, Elle and Rebecca came up. I had no clue where Katie was. Frankly, I didn't care right now. I didn't care about anything right now, I realized.

"Aw, get over him Lily," Rebecca was saying. "He's just being a bastard."

I nodded slowly. Some of what Rebecca was saying made sense. Especially the last part. I smiled to myself. I would have to tell James that, face to face.

Elle pulled my arm. "C'mon, Lily. Let's go outside. It's beautiful out."

I followed her out of the dorm room. Rebecca had gone and taken a shower. I heard her scream from the cold water. Elle and I laughed for a bit.

Elle was right. Outside was beautiful. The sun was shining, when just yesterday it had been pouring. It was warm against my face. I closed my eyes and smiled. This was nice.

I opened them and saw Elle looking at something. I followed her gaze to James and Hilary, walking and holding hands. I stepped towards them, but Elle stopped me.

"Let them be," she advised me. "Get over him. He's not worth it."

I stopped struggling. Elle's words had been magic. I _would_ get over him. James Potter would mean nothing to me now.

"I trust you, Elle," I said silently.

* * *

The next day, I saw James and Hilary again. Elle should become a healer. Her advice worked. I _had_ gotten over James. I knew my life would be happier now. 

As I was walking to lunch that afternoon, Sirius stopped me in the hall.

"Yes?" I asked him curtly.

"James fancies you," he blurted out.

I laughed. "No, you mean he likes _Hilary_. Lily Evans, Hilary Greenweld. No similarity whatsoever in names. How could you mix them up?"

He looked confused. "You're crazy, woman." He eyed me suspiciously, and then continued. "I do mean he fancies _you_, not Hilary. He needs a cover up. You make him hurt too much, deep down. He thinks you hate him, and so he needs to relieve some tension. That's why he did that to you."

I knew I was going red. I tried to cover it up, but failed. Miserably. I stared at the floor, letting my hair hang down in front of my eyes.

I looked into Sirius's eyes again. "He's eleven. I'm not going to worry about this…not now. He shouldn't either. I'm going to wait until I'm older to worry about my heart breaking. You should advise him to do the same."

Sirius nodded slowly. "Shall we go to lunch?" he finally asked. He started walking and I caught up to him after.

At lunch, no one seemed to notice me. It was like everyone had forgotten the incident between me and James. That was good though. I wasn't the kind of person that liked to draw attention to myself. Unlike…well, unlike James, for example.

I ate lunch as fast as possible. Just in case someone had something click in their brain, and then blurt out something like, "Lily, you're ugly" or "Everyone! Lily made a fool of herself! Let me tell you the story!"

Thankfully, no one relived my nightmares. I got out of there as soon as I finished my meal.

I turned around to see if anyone was following me. No one was, which was good. I smiled and walked up the Grand Staircase. Who would happen to be waiting at the top was no other than Hilary. I inwardly groaned, but then noticed that James was nowhere to be found.

"Aren't you sad that Jamesy isn't chasing after you anymore? I think you liked the attention." She sneered at me. _Why wasn't she put in Slytherin?_ I wondered. She seemed like one.

"I don't care about James anymore. I've gotten over him." I stated proudly. Her face fell. I bet she was hoping to rub it in my face. "And besides," I continued, "I'm not an attention lover. You're sources are wrong."

I left her sanding there, in the middle of the hall. She had a shocked expression on her face. I laughed silently to myself. I'm betting that she wanted to show James off to me like he was some sort of prized dog or flower. Fat chance.

I trust my friends. They say that I shouldn't get all worked up over this, and I'm not. I hate people like Hilary, James, Freddy. Siruis too, if you think about it. Peter and Remus aren't involved in this feud. I don't hate them.

My friends are my life. Hogwarts is my life. Back home, I don't have a life. I'm just a lonely girl without a dad there. Here, I'm something.

I don't ever want to leave. No matter how much this place freaks me out.

* * *

(A/N) (Shakes head) Not a good chapter. Oh well, review and tell me what you think! Please try and be nice though…Lol 

Ciao,

Love From Ritz


	14. Leaving Hogwarts and Henry

(A/N) Hola, again! Thanks for all the reviews last chapter…but sadly, this will be the last chapter for this story! Never fear…there is going to be a sequel after this! It will be in their 6th year…so more action for you fluff lovers! Hehe…a couple of people have asked me if I have read The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants! And yes, I have! It's actually one of my favourite books, and one of the few books that I actually cried in! Everything that you recognized is not mine…don't sue me! I'm using a lot of exclamation marks, aren't I? I'll try to stop lol…well on to the final chapter in Awake and Dreaming!

Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter.

**Chapter 14- Leaving Hogwarts and Henry**

"Pass the eggs, Lils," said Elle through a mouthful of food.

"Sure, whatever…here," said Lily. It was two days until the school year ended. Lily had done fairly well on her finals…Rebecca and Elle did okay. Katie passed. Barely.

It was still early in the morning; breakfast had just started. Lily, Rebecca, Elle, and Katie wanted to spend as much time exploring Hogwarts ground before they left for the summer. Lily wasn't hungry, quite frankly. She didn't want to leave Hogwarts…she didn't want to go back to her old life.

She would have to face it sometime, she knew.

A voice snapped her out of her trance. "C'mon, Lils, let's go!" Elle and Rebecca were standing over, waiting impatiently. Lily turned her attention to the opposite side of the table, where Katie was frantically shovelling the food she didn't finish into her mouth. Lily laughed.

"Your going to get fat, Katie," said Lily with a smile on her face. Rebecca suppressed a giggle.

"No I'm not!" Retorted Katie. As a final statement, she swallowed and pushed her plate away. She stood up and stalked out of the Great Hall. Lily stood up and followed Elle and Rebecca who were following Katie, who was heading towards the Quidditch Pitch.

By the time Lily had caught up, Katie had already broken into the shed where the brooms were stored and was handing them out. She had taken the best one for herself, and gave the worst to Elle.

"Oh, thanks a lot Kate!" Elle said. Katie smiled.

"No problem Elle, but remember I still love you." Elle just shrugged and mounted her broom and kicked off.

Katie threw a broom at Lily, and took off with Rebecca. Lily warily grabbed hers and mounted it. She had flown a broom once, only once before. In flying class. It was the first time she had ever tried it, and her broom went haywire on her and bucked her off. Lily absolutely despised flying, and it hated her.

Slowly, Lily put her broom back into the storage shed and started climbing to the seats. When she was about halfway up, she heard voices. Peering out of a hole in the fabric, she saw James and Peter walking towards the pitch. Peter just happened to glace and see her head poking halfway out from the stands. He pointed and James looked up, seeing her mortified face. He started running up the stairs…Lily could hear him pounding up. She tried to get her head back through the hole…but to her GREAT luck, she got stuck.

James showed up just in time to find Lily clawing at the cloth. He went over to her and ripped it big enough so she could slip her head through. She straightened and dragged her fingers through her hair. She could feel James's hot breath down her neck.

He finally broke the silence. "Listen, Lily…I don't know what's going through your head right now, but before we leave for the summer I want you to know this. You've been avoiding me lately, and quite frankly, I don't know why. All year I've been helpful, nice, caring…and you just rub it in my face. All I want is to be friends, nothing more, nothing less. I just don't get it."

By this time, Lily was close to tears. He had been nice to her all year, and she had been so self-involved not to notice it. She had been awful to him every day that she was here.

"James, I…" She couldn't finish the sentence. She broke down into tears.

"Shh, Lily. Just say we're friends and I'll forget everything bad that happened between us. Put it in the past, whatever. I don't want to spend the summer knowing that we never got along."

Lily wiped away her tears. "Of course we're friends," she said softly. James smiled and hugged her. Lily was kind of surprised at first, but in the end she hugged him back. They stayed like that for what seemed like forever.

Lily was overjoyed. They were no longer enemies. They were acting like civilized people. It was crazy.

Slowly, James pulled away and left without another word. Lily ran to the tear and stuck her head out. She saw James emerge from the stand, and walk away alone. Peter had left some time ago. Lily was only a little disappointed when he didn't even look back.

She blinked and pulled her head back in. With a hair tie that was around her wrist, she tied her hair back in a loose bun. She wiped away the stray tears rolling down her cheeks and ran up to watch her friends play a mock game of Quidditch.

* * *

Lily woke up the next morning feeling happy, sad, and sort of relieved. She was happy that her and James were actually friends now. She was sad that today was her last day at Hogwarts until September, and that she had to go back to her old life. She was relieved from classes that day, just like she was relieved from classes for the past week and a half.

She slowly opened the curtains to find Elle up, Katie still sleeping, and Rebecca not there. Probably taking a shower.

Elle looked up from the book she was reading and smiled. "I can't believe that this is our last day together," she said.

"Don't be serious, Elle! We'll defiantly see each other during the summer, and don't forget next year, and the year after that, and…" Elle cut her off.

"I get it! Your right!" She said. Just then, Rebecca came out of the bathroom, her dark hair even darker because it was wet. Rebecca glanced towards Katie who was stirring. She smiled and pointed at her. Lily and Elle didn't really know what she was doing or saying.

Rebecca shook her head and tiptoed over to Katie's bed. She counted to three, and then pounced on Katie's bed screaming. Lily and Elle laughed as Katie jumped up and hit her head on the frame of her bed.

* * *

Their last breakfast at Hogwarts for this year. They were fairly late today, and the Great Hall was packed when they arrived. The train left this morning at 11, and it was 10 right now.

Lily, Elle, Katie, and Rebecca found some empty seats at the end of the table. Food immediately appeared on their plates, and they began stuffing their faces. The next time they would eat would be on the train from the food trolley.

Owls started streaming into the Hall, finding and delivering post. Kantu swooped down and dropped a letter on Lily's head. She was kind of surprised, but soon forgot about it. She tore open the letter.

_Dear Lily,_

_I know this is a bit late, and I know it's your last day at school for this year. I've met someone. His name is Henry, and he's very nice. We will be living at his house for quite a while. Petunia insisted on the biggest room, but we let her have the second biggest. Your room is bigger than the one that you had at our old home. We'll meet you at the train station when you arrive, but not on Platform 9 ¾. Henry doesn't yet know that you are a witch, and I'm not planning on telling him. Don't you tell him either. We'll meet you outside so he doesn't get suspicious._

_See you soon!_

_Love, Mum._

"She met someone…" Lily said quietly to herself. Lily's eyes swelled up with tears. She vividly remembered at her dad's funeral her mom promised she would never marry again, nor would she go on dates. She said she was loyal to Lily's dad still, even though he had died. She lied.

"Lily, let's go!" Rebecca was standing over her, looking at Lily strangely. Her impatient face quickly turned to sympathy when she saw Lily's eyes filled with tears.

"What happened?" she asked.

"It's nothing…c'mon let's go…" Lily stood up and pushed past her, wiping her eyes as she went.

"Okay…" said Rebecca.

Making sure they hadn't left anything, the four friends left the Great Hall for the train.

* * *

The Hogwarts Express was slowing down. If she strained her neck enough, Lily could see all the happy parents waiting on platform 9 and ¾. She was slightly disappointed that her mother didn't come on the platform to wait for her. Lily wondered when Henry would find out about her being a witch.

The train stopped. Lily could hear people opening compartments and clambering out of the train. Slowly, she stood up and grabbed her owl cage and trunk. As soon as she stepped out of the compartment she was swept along the corridor until she could find a door.

She hugged all her friends goodbye, and she caught one last glimpse of the Hogwarts Express before she went to the Muggle world. Lily walked down all the different platforms until she reached the doors to outside. When she stepped out, she squinted. She saw her mother waving farther down, so Lily started heading towards her.

A man got out of their car. He was about 6 feet tall, and very strongly built. He had dark brown hair, and green eyes, like Lily's eyes. He draped his right arm around her mother's shoulders and Lily got a sudden jolt of anger. This must have been Henry, the man who stole her mother away from her.

Saying a quick 'hello', and afterhugging her mom, Lily got into the car. Henry got in the drivers seat and started the car. Lily was vaguely aware that her mom was asking her questions about her year. Lily's mind was somewhere else. She was remembering everything from Christmas time, when she had to kiss James while they were under the mistletoe, to when Meghann died. A lot had happened this year…and she already missed Hogwarts.

Lightly touching her pocket to make sure her wand was still there, she smiled and stared at the landscape going by.

* * *

(A/N) Hehe…wasn't that great? I don't think so…I think the next story will defiantly be better. I'm still thinking about what exactly will happen in the next story, but I know that it will be in their 6th or 7th year. Maybe 6th, probably 7th. I'm not sure. Before I start the new story, I'm going to work on my other one for a while, so it will probably be up in a month, no later. Maybe even sooner, if lots of people review! (hint hint)

Ritz xoxo


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